Bound by Blood
by Keybearer001
Summary: Erin couldn't be happier. She was in a great relationship with Halstead, had a great job, and was clean. She had everything she could ever want. Until she meets Thea, a young girl with a heart problem. As the two get to know one another, Erin realizes there is more than meets the eye with Thea. Especially since she has seen those eyes before.
1. Chapter 1

**Hello everyone. welcome to my second attempt at a CPD fic. Unlike my last fic, this is being co written by a fan of the show markMcG9718, who is writing his own CPD fic, yet to be published so this will be better hopefully. However I am open to any and all support, so review if you have ideas or any comments to make.**

* * *

Erin sat at her desk, drumming her pen in boredom as she glanced down at her paperwork for the day. It wasn't like she had much of anything else to do today, for it had been fairly quiet. Despite that however, she hadn't exactly been feeling well. Though she had been working at her new job for a few years now it had done little to sooth her. She just went through the motions at work, barely even thinking about anything else. Her co-workers just thought that she was kind of a zombie because she barely spoke two words to anyone other then when she needed to.

It wasn't like she asked to be like this. Things were just hard for her. She was practically on her own and the only thing that she could count on was Hank Voight, her adoptive father. Hank was the captain at the Chicago intelligence Unit for the police department, something that Erin admired about him. Erin had aspirations about joining him at the intelligence unit and had even had plans to go to the police academy right after high school, something that Hank agreed with, though he was concerned about how it would affect Erin, given her past.

Growing up on the streets hadn't made life easy for Erin, having had a father who was in prison, and a mother who loved the next bottle and pill. Erin had spent more time crying on the floor than she had eating dinner at the table. When she was fourteen, unlike other teenagers she spent more time in prison and on the street as opposed to finding a nice skirt and wearing make up. In no uncertain terms, Erin was a drug addict. She wasn't afraid to really admit it now, because during her unfortunate drug filled rage, she met Hank Voight, who adopted her as his own and had her clean up her act. Erin couldn't be more grateful if she tried.

The only bad part about that time was her time in high school. It wasn't like she got into any trouble quite the opposite as a matter of fact. Well, there was that one time that she got into a fight. She had to spend all of her time in high school trying to avoid any sort of confrontation, or she would be expelled from the school. It had been hard work, but she was able to not disappoint Voight. He was the closest thing to a father that she had ever known and she intended to keep him proud as long as she could.

Erin shook her head, shaking the thought out of her mind. She needed to concentrate on her work. She would have to deal with her thoughts later; she couldn't afford any distractions right now. It was barely past dinnertime and she needed to get her work done before she went out with Jay.

The two had been in a committed relationship for a while now and by all counts, she was glad to have someone like him in her life. They had been partners for three years now and despite a rocky start at first, she found herself smitten with the elder more experienced detective. Through thick and thin they were partners and eventually lovers, much to her pleasure.

The two were planning a nice dinner this evening, at one of the nicest restaurants in town, Everest. How Jay was able to get a reservation at such a place Erin wasn't sure, but she did know that he probably had to ask for a lot of favors to be able to even try and get a seat there, let alone a seat for two. Not that she was complaining. She absolutely loved it when he spoiled her. At least when she wanted him to, if he did it too much then she just might go a little stir crazy

Speak of the devil, just as she was about to finish her last bit of work for the day, a rough hand made contact with her shoulder, followed by the breathy thick whisper in her ear "you ready to go sweetheart?" Hearing Jays voice sent shivers down Erin's spine, and she moaned quietly, not wanting to really attract very much attention. Not like there was going to be much attention to begin with, since she and Jay were the only ones still in the room, Voight was down with the others at the diner along with the fire crews and the doctors who worked at the Hospital, including Will, Jay's brother. It was lucky that they were even able to get some timer alone, since they were often so close to their Squad mates. But ever since they went public, it had been nothing but congratulations and celebrations. It was annoying to no end that the two weren't able to get any sort of privacy beyond being intimate with one another. So she was looking forward to having a nice simple romantic dinner with her lover, as opposed to a public meal while suppressing their lust.

At least she would get to wear the nice dress she bought a week ago. The one that she promised jay she would wear, just for him tonight.

Ok she was getting a little ahead of herself, but point was she was a little excited. She turned her head, giving Jay a sultry look. "Of course I am." She whispered seductively, causing jays eyes to twinkle with a hint of mirth. Erin couldn't help but giggle. She absolutely loved teasing Jay like this without any further ado, she dropped her pen on the table pushed out her chair and stood up. With a smile, Erin linked her arm with his and together they walked out of the room, ready to head to their shared apartment.

* * *

With a very labored grunt, Althea sighed as she placed the large box containing the last of her belongings from the foster home center that she had been at. She pushed her hair out of the way as she stood up, glancing at the empty room that was supposed to be serving as her new room in this… she sighed, feeling a lump in her throat as the thought entered her mind. Foster home. It was like a cancer in her mind. The more she said it, the more pain she felt about it.

Althea, affectionately know as Thea, had been born around 15 years ago. That was about all she knew ladies and gentlemen, because Althea knew absolutely nothing else. She had grown up in an orphanage as a child, born with a heart condition, known as Ventricular Septal Defect, a hole in her heart. However, it was rather aggressive and unfortunately, the orphanage couldn't afford any treatment for her. They were able to do minor surgery's to make she was kept alive, but they just couldn't afford to cure her completely. The surgery's often left her hurting and as a result of her medical condition, it seemed that no one wanted to adopt a child predisposed to a medical condition. This often left her disappointed and in every case, curled up on the floor and in tears all she wanted was to have a family and a loving home to stay in. a place where she could truly be someone.

But even this was not to be for her. When Thea was ten, she was shoved into the foster care system because the orphanage just couldn't afford her surgeries anymore. As a result, Thea was shoved between schools and homes every few months for the past four years. It left her feeling abandoned and yearning for love, something that she felt that she wouldn't get because just when she felt that she could start getting comfortable, she would once again be uprooted and lifted from her home moved to a nee temporary hone until someone finally decided to adopt her. Something she just felt wouldn't happen at this point.

No one wanted some one like her. They didn't want to be saddled with a child who would be a burden, mostly to the savings. A tear fell down Thea's cheek as she sat on the dirty mattress; the only thing in the room. All she wanted was a family, even friends to heal the hole inside her heart, no pun intended.

Well, at the very least, school was something she could look forward to. If not for the non-existent friends she could at the very least fill her head with something. Thea enjoyed. Learning was the only respite she had against the terrible storm that lay dormant within her. If anything Thea had a desire to learn about medicine. Maybe it was just because he had her own medical condition, but the idea of helping people like her seemed like a very rich and rewarding prospect for her future. At the very least she could give hope to those who had none, like her.

The problem was, that she didn't have any money for college, and she would have to rely on a scholarship. It wasn't that she didn't believe that she couldn't do it, it was that she was scared that she just wouldn't get the chance to. Despite her passion for education, she wasn't sure whether or not with her condition she would get a chance to go to college.

With a sigh, Thea flopped on her bed, looking at the increasingly boring ceiling that made her eyes feel worse. Blank. Completely blank. Just like her life. Wow. How impressive was she?

Unconsciously, her hand reached for her neck, which housed her most prized possession. It was a golden necklace, with a heart shaped locket. It didn't seem so special at first glance but it was what was inside the locket that made it so special to Thea. Inside was a picture her as a baby, wrapped in the arms of a young woman, who seemed to be staring down at her. Unfortunately, her face was partially obscured. It seemed to Thea that the picture was taken when the woman wasn't paying attention. By all means, this was most likely her mother, but she was never able to secure a face or even her name. It didn't seem like there was any way of knowing who this woman was.

Even worse, there was also an inscription on the inside. Thea had said the phrase so many times that she knew it by heart. Blood bonds us together forever. Blood. Someone's blood ran through her veins, bonding her with her mother and father forever as a family.

It made Althea's heart ache all the more. Why had someone gone through the trouble of the trouble of making a locket with that phrase engraved into it and give it to her, only to abandon her and leave her in an orphanage? It was cruel, and it was wrong.

All Althea wanted was to find her birth parents, but she didn't even have a birth certificate, let alone the names of her birth parents. The only thing she had was her name and this locket. Not exactly a large amount of resources to go on, but she had hope. Wherever her parents were, she hoped to be able to find them some day.

But she would deal with that later. Tomorrow was her first day at school and she was going to make sure to make the best of it. With a sigh, Thea closed her eyes and fell asleep.

* * *

 **Let me know what you think!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2! I want to thank everyone who followed and favorited this story! I have never received such a** **response, so thank you all. Also thank you Mark, for beta reading this chapter!**

* * *

Erin awoke the next morning, wrapped in Jay's arms, both the sunlight and jays body warming her skin, particularly in the afterglow of a romantic and passionate evening. Even though there had been plenty of times where they had gone out and even more so where she and Jay had gotten intimate, there was something that she just couldn't get over. She wasn't addicted to this, of course, but… she could get used to it, is what she means. Since she had a crush on this guy for the longest of times.

Erin turned over on her back, taking a moment to sneak a glance at Jay. Predictably, he was still asleep, probably tired out after the few passionate sessions that they had engaged in last night. Without missing a beat, Erin quickly shimmied out of Jays hold, and swung her legs over the bed, taking a moment to stretch her limbs, all the while feeling a satisfying pop emanating from her joints. The young woman then got up from the bed, grabbing her dress from the floor and slipping them on. It was still early in the morning and she needed to get to her apartment so she could get ready. Just because she was sleeping with Jay, it didn't mean she had the fore sight to bring her cloths to his apartment, and he would rather get in a shower and the appropriate outfit before heading to work this morning.

After managing to get in her dress and grab her jacket, Erin bolted from Jays apartment, going down the stairs and too the sidewalk. She needed to get to the bus before it left, and hopefully she wouldn't miss it this morning. It was one of the only downfalls about needing to get to her apartment. Oh well, Erin really couldn't complain. At least she would get a good view of the city this morning.

* * *

Thea slipped on her backpack, the item being heavy due to her textbooks. Damn social studies. If there was one thing that Thea absolutely hated in school it was her social studies classes. She always stuck to her science classes, her medicine the only thing that gave her an escape from the reality of her life. Or the sadness of dealing with her many foster parents, some of whom cared and some of whom didn't. Still it didn't seem, for how much love or heartache that Thea got, to make any difference. The fact that she was moved to yet another foster home just in this past week seemed to reinforce that fact.

Thea had been removed from the orphanage that she grew up in as a child when she was 10, as part of a weird program to see if they couldn't get adopted, as well as to just make room for the younger kids that needed to be cared for.

Five years later, Thea was still trying to get adopted, or at the very least trying to find someone who would want to adopt her. No one seemed to want to care for her, since there were so many medical expenses to go through to help her heart. But no one had the heart to help her, when she needed it the most.

With all this in mind, Thea put a smile on her face, determined to not to let her feelings get the better of her. There was still a bright side to this. She was going to a new school and making new friends this year, since it was officially her first day of high school.

She then bound out of her room and down the steps of the house, ignoring her foster parents, curled up on the couch like they hadn't heard her and flew out the door, ready to run all the way over to the bus stop and get to school. She couldn't wait to try her science classes. She was very fond of the violin.

Her neighborhood really wasn't the best; it was probably one of the dirtiest ones in the whole city, but for no it was home. And besides, given her luck, Thea would be out of here by the end of this semester. Not that she had much luck getting into better neighborhoods, so she was used to it.

With a skip in her step Thea arrived at the corner of her streets, where she stood along with a group of other kids. They seemed to ignore her, which was fine. She wasn't one for talking anyway, and honestly, given the neighborhood, she wasn't sure that she wanted to talk to them. They looked scary to her. Hopefully she would find people she was more inclined to talk to while at school. Besides she was certain she was going to get the 'new kid' look from everyone there anyway.

Her chest began to ache, and she resisted the urge to reach for it. It was a side effect of her VSD. Sometimes it acted up, but she ignored it. The last thing she needed was for her to be viewed as a freak. It would pass very soon and then she could go back to pretending that life was better for her than it actually was.

"it will be ok… It will be ok" she whispered to herself, as the bus came from around the corner.

* * *

"Where were you this morning?" Platt said, wearing a Cheshire cats smile behind her desk and Erin walked in, wearing her usual work outfit as she walked into the department. Judging by the look on plats face, Erin must have come in with a smile and a bounce in her step. Platt always did have a habit of being sarcastic, or treating her coworkers horribly, but Erin didn't mind. Today was as good as it was ever going to get before any cases came to the door. A police officers work was never done. Giving Platt a curt nod, Erin went up the stairs to meet up with the rest of her squad.

She said squad, but of course they were more like her family. Voight was the father she never had; he was like a father to them all. Erin had grown up with him, so they had a close bond. Jay of course was her boyfriend, Platt the grumpy Aunt, Burgess and Roman were like the younger cousins, and the list just went on and on. The only thing missing was the bratty kids that were tugging at Voight's feet, but if Erin had to guess, that role would go to her. She certainly put him through enough of that when she was a kid.

She giggled slightly, covering her mouth with her hand as she made her way to her desk, plopping down in her chair. However she wasn't even in the chair for five minutes when Jay came up the stairs, a slightly dismayed look on his face as he past Erin, but Erin could see the twinkle in his eyes.

Well that meant that they both had fun then, didn't it? she sent the man a sly wink, before turning her gaze to her computer. It was time that she should try to get her paperwork done, lest they have to leave to do the fieldwork, something that she enjoyed all the more.

As Erin began to do her paper work, when she heard Voight call her from his office "Erin! My office" Erin looked up, surprised by Voight calling her, as he would never call her into his office unless it was important. The last time that happened was when she was forced to move back in with him following her return to the world of drugs and alcohol as a way to cope with Nadia. She wasn't even at work for long and Voight was already needing her for something. A new record, she supposed. She shook her head smiling. Hopefully he had something better planned for her than paperwork.

She stepped in front of Voight's office. Inside was the man himself, sitting at his desk and looking over some of his own paperwork. Beside the paper was an envelope, and he seemed to be reading the contents of it very thoroughly, with his mouth in a thin line, almost like he was lacking any sort of amusement whilst reading it. Lightly tapping on the door "Hank" she said cordially, causing the elder man to look up at Erin "Detective… please sit down" he said, motioning towards the chair. Erin sat down, her hands on her lap, while smiling at Hank, trying hard not smile too hard "what is it Hank?"

"I've just gotten a text from a friend that works security at a nearby high school . he was supposed to give a presentation on gun safety this afternoon after classes, but it seems that he has gotten sick with the flu and needs someone to cover for him. he asked if I happened to have anyone available today. Would you be interested?" Hank asked, giving Erin a pointed look as if daring her to refuse.

Erin shrugged in response, not at all taken aback or affronted with this new 'assignment' "when do I start?" she asked. T least she would be able to get away from her paper work for the day

"As soon as you finish your paperwork." Voight said a ghost of a smile on his face.

Spoke to soon Erin. Spoke to soon. With a huff Erin stood up and walked out of the room, going back to her desk. Damn her paperwork!

* * *

Thea, with her head on her desk resisted the urge to groan as her teacher continued to drone on about something that she had completely tuned out of. She just… ugg. Social studies were a practical nightmare for her. History was great and all, but these long lectures were something she just couldn't stand. Just give her the cliff notes version and let her do her work and she would be all good. It certainly couldn't be that hard. But no she had to listen to the bla bla bla. She was getting bored just thinking about it. and there was still an hour left of this class. It was only her second one! Why couldn't it be winter break? At least then she wouldn't have to deal with this boring lecture.

She lifted her head deciding that at the very least, she could try and get away from this for a few minutes.

She raised her head and lifted a hand, hoping to catch her teacher's attention. Thankfully it seemed to work and the teacher called on her "yes Althea?" he asked.

Thea put on her best fake put, giving the teacher a sad frown "I'm a bit thirsty, could I please go get a drink of water?" she asked, rubbing her neck as if to show just how parched she really was. Thankfully, if there was one thing that Thea was capable of it was manipulating others and she used that to full effect whenever she wanted to escape the massive boredom of her classes.

The teacher nodded, as Thea quickly bolted from the room, heading to the nearest water fountain. She quickly bent over the fountain drinking some of the cool crisp refreshing liquid.

However a moment later, her chest exploded with pain , causing her to stumble back. She breathed heavily, "no" she whispered, she quickly ran into the bathroom, hoping that she could at least get some privacy, but as she did, Thea, trip and fell, slamming her head on the ground, and everything went black.

* * *

 **Seems like Thea is is trouble. Its only going to get worse. Let me know what you think!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3! Sorry if this chapter isn't the best. I had a bit of writers block while writing this. For clarification, this fic takes place after the most recent PD episodes, lets say for now after the season finale. Also, Thea is portrayed as Abigail Breslin.**

* * *

Erin arrived at the high school that she was supposed to give a talk to the class that Hank had volunteered (notice the massive air quotes) her to give a lesson on gun safety. Why they wouldn't have done this sooner was a question that Erin would never be able to answer, but it really wasn't going to be a problem for her to do. At least she wouldn't have to worry about getting shot at or worry about suspects like she did on a daily basis. This was going to be a piece of cake.

Erin got out of the car, leaving her gun in the glove department, since she wouldn't be able to take it into the school with her. It would be safer in there than in the hands of a teenager who wanted to try out a gun for the first time anyway. In front of her was the school. It wasn't like her own experience in high school; this one looked rather run down and clearly wasn't up to par with some of the others in Chicago, but neither was it a terrible one either. It just seemed rather average. Wonder why anyone would need gun safety in a place like this?

Erin sighed. This… she had no words for this. But at the very least she could help others see the problems with such a dangerous weapon, and for once her life would not be in danger.

"Ok… now where was I supposed to go again?" she whispered to herself, grabbing her phone. Luckily Voight had given her the information, so she would get too lost in the school. According to the info she would be giving a lecture in a social studies class. Hmm made sense she supposed

Quickly, she made her way into the building, hoping not to waste too much time. The building didn't seem too large though and it wasn't like she could get lost very easily.

* * *

Meanwhile back in the Intelligence unit, Jay was having a drink with Roman. The two had gotten along in the past few weeks, mostly because they both shared the fact that they were dating a coworker, who just happened to be their partners. While they never disclosed anything personal about the others relationship, it did give them something to talk about and give advice to assist the other in their own relationship.

"So… you and Burgess" Jay asked, raising an eyebrow as he took a sip of his soda. Since they were still on the job and they hadn't even yet closed a case, there wasn't any way for them to be able to go to the nearby Molly's bar and share a drink with their firefighter or doctor compatriots. So for now he was just content with being able to have a soda. At the very least it would keep him alert for when he and the others actually did have to go out in the field.

Roman choked on his own drink, water. He had thought that he had hid his relationship with Burgess rather well. Clearly he had thought wrong. His face lit up like a light and he chuckled weakly, trying to hide his discomfort. Of course Jay would know that he and Burgess were sleeping with each other, considering he was dating Erin. He probably saw the signs, whatever they were. That and that recent court case from the other day also told the entire squad about their relationship. It wasn't a pretty time in their lives, but at least they got through it.

At least they were the only ones in the room. He couldn't imagine the thought of anyone else hearing this conversation. But now considering that Jay was asking he might as well come clean. It wasn't like him to gossip anyway.

He nodded "yeah…" After the whole think with Ruzek and him being jealous over everything about Burgess's life, Roman was honestly surprised that she wanted to try and establish a relationship with him. Sure it had worked out so far, despite the bumps in the road, but Roman honestly couldn't be much happier if he tried. Sure Burgess was currently dealing with a lot right now, having accidently shot the wrong suspect, and they were giving each other some space, but he was trying to be helpful when and where it counted.

Jay laughed quietly. Despite the troubles that Roman and burgess were currently going through, it felt good to be able to talk about this with someone who shared his experience. At least neither of them had dated the same person at some point. That would just be awkward.

Jay nodded " to women" he said, raising his glass, before taking another sip of his drink. Hopefully Erin was having just as much of a good day as they were.

* * *

Erin arrived at the classroom. Where to her surprise, the classroom was very small, made up of only 15 people. Sure she wasn't expecting a large crowd, since this wasn't any sort of university, but still, they needed her here for this? Swallowing her disappointment, Erin looked at the teacher, giving hi the best fake smile that she could.

Surprisingly the teacher blinked, looking at Erin as if something she had done struck her as familiar. Erin couldn't have imagined why, she had never met this woman before in her life "Mrs. Jane, I presume?" Erin asked gently, ignoring the look that this woman was giving her.

The older woman looked at Erin a moment longer before shaking her head "oh yes… detective Lindsey… our office told you that you would be coming today. She stood up lifting a hand to shake Erins. Erin accepted the handshake, before glancing at the rest of the class "Is this everyone?"

Mrs. Jane looked at the students, cocking her head, before shaking her head. "No… we are missing a student… Where is Thea?" she asked raising her voice to address the students. They all shook their heads. They didn't know where she was."

That's odd… she shouldn't have been gone that long. She only went to get water." Mrs. Jane said, rubbing her chin.

That immediately made Erin worry, despite not knowing who Thea was. "I'll go find her" she offered "its kind of my job" ok well that was kind of a fib, but as an officer of the law it was her duty to protect the citizens of Chicago from any and all kinds of harm. Besides if she had been gone for so long, she could theoretically be in danger. Erin didn't know why she felt like that, but anything could happen. This school didn't exactly look like the most pristine institution

Without even waiting for a response, Erin turned right around and proceeded to walk down the hallway in the opposite direction that she had walked in. she hadn't passed anything on her first walk into the classroom, so there clearly hadn't been anywhere for Thea to go there.

Erin turned down the hall, before noticing a water fountain, going over to it, Erin grimaced. It looked disgusting, but beyond that it looked almost dry. This sorry excuse of a water fountain hadn't been used at all in a while. Meaning that Thea had never gotten her water. Or if she did, it had been a while and it had already dried up..

Despite herself, Erin felt her heart quicken as the worst possible case scenarios went through her mind. However the young woman kept calm, trying to asses the situation and think about where the next likely location for a teenager could be if they were going for a drink at a water fountain. Luckily she wouldn't have to look very far; the bathroom was right there. Thea hadn't returned and Erin doubted that she would leave before the middle of the school day.

The detective entered the bathroom, where immediately she spotted a young girl face down on the ground. "Oh my god!' she said immediately falling to her knees beside the young girl and rolling her over so that Erin could see her face and check her vitals. Good, there was a pulse on her neck. So she was still alive. "Thea!" she cried. Other than a slight twitch of her face, Thea remained unresponsive to Erin's calls.

The girl was only a teenager, roughly Erin's height take a few inches. She had brown hair similar to Erin's, and a slightly lighter skin tone. The only thing that stood out to Erin was the deep gash on her forehead,, no doubt a wound sustained by a fall; the only explanation for why Thea was on the floor, since there was no signs of assault.

Erin felt something stir within her. Despite never having seen Thea before in her life, Erin couldn't help think that there was something familiar about this girl. She just couldn't place as to why she felt like this. However now was not the time to worry about that, she needed to get Thea to the hospital. Quickly, Erin gathered the young girl in her arms and ran from the room.

* * *

By the time Erin got to the hospital, the unconscious girl in tow, she realized two things. One, she hadn't informed the teacher about the situation because she was in a panic and two, she hadn't checked in with Hank to inform her that she was shirking her duties in order o get this girl to the hospital. She could worry about the repercussions and consequences of her actions later; she wanted to make sure that Thea was ok.

Erin quickly unbuckled her seatbelt and hopped out of the car, going to the other side, where Thea still sat unconscious, and gathered the young girl in her arms. Erin wasn't sure how long she had been unconscious, but clearly there was something wrong here. She couldn't help Thea, but she knew quite a few people that would definitely be able to help her before it was too late.

Without a moment to lose, Erin quickly jogged into Gaffey medical center, where one of her trusted friends worked, as well as his team. She had been here a couple of times and she valued the work of the doctors that resided here. Now she could only hope that they would be able to save this girls life. "Please, somebody help!" she cried.

Dr. Choi, one of the senior staff as well as April, a nurse that Erin was familiar with, were the first to arrive on the scene, along with a gurney. They took Thea from Erins arms and placed her on the gurney, spiriting her away to be checked out.

* * *

Later, Erin sat in the lobby, her fingers curled in her lap as she desperately tried to calm her beating heart. She couldn't understand why she felt this way; only that looking at Thea stirred something inside of her. Something that felt familiar, almost like she had seen Thea before, but couldn't place as to why. It was just strange, but she couldn't deny her feelings, regardless of whether or not that they would actually end up being true or not.

How was she? It had been almost an hour since Thea had been taken away, and so far no one had come to see her to give her an update. During that time, Erin had been ignoring calls from hank and Jay, who were probably wondering where she was. She was jut to concerned to be able to talk to them right now.

As she sat there waiting for any sort of results, the sound of someone clearing their throat caused Erin to jump. She looked up to see Will Halstead, Jay's brother. In his hands was a file and his face looked incredibly somber. Erin immediately thought the worst "is…" she couldn't finish that sentence

Will shook his head "she is fine. She had complications from Ventricular Septal defect. We were able to help her, but she will still be affected by it. We can't operate on her without the consent of her parents."

Erin blinked "I'm afraid I don't know who they are" she said sheepishly. She hadn't asked because one, Thea was unconscious, and two, she rushed right over here. "I can go back to her school and gather the information I'm sure"

Will shook his head. " That won't be necessary. We took a blood sample from the head injury she sustained and we ran it through some hospital databases. We found a match," he explained.

Erin blinked, surprised. "And?" she prompted.

Will took a deep breath, closing his eyes briefly and running a hand down his face. "The results… were interesting."

* * *

 **All will be revealed in the next chapter.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Sorry for the long wait. I had a personal issue happen to me and I had to deal with it. If anyone is curious, I was heartbroken. Thats all I'm going to say about it. Hopefully you guys will enjoy this chapter. Mother and daughter meet face to face for the first time.**

* * *

Erin sat in the chair after Will gave her the file, her hands shaking madly with a mixture of horror and guilt. It just couldn't be possible. It wasn't. She was supposed to be safe, somewhere far from Chicago, never to be seen or heard from again. Hank had set it up. It just wasn't possible, not after all these years.

These results told Erin the unspoken truth. No matter how much she wanted to deny it validity, Erin couldn't bring herself to speak. Thea was her daughter. The daughter that she had left behind a lifetime ago, because Erin herself was still only a child. Tears began to well up in Erin's eyes, her breath caught in her throat as a rush of memories flooded her mind, her heart pounding in her chest.

Erin had only been 15 years old when she discovered that she was pregnant. It had been quite the day waking up, only to be running to her bathroom to relieve herself of Camille's spicy meatloaf, one of her favorite meals. It had stirred up quite the wonder, but while at first she thought it was just a stomach bug, she got the shock of her life when she learned that she hadn't had he period for two weeks.

Needles to say, nobody was very happy to find out that Erin was pregnant, especially after she promised Hank that she wouldn't get into any trouble, though to be fair, pregnancy wasn't the same as hitting the pills. Not that it mattered. The fact remained that she was pregnant

Erin was pulled out of school during the later half of her pregnancy while she started to show; Hank didn't want her to be viewed any more negatively than she already was. Erin herself took it hard, because she knew that she had made a very big mistake. To make matters worse, she was torn in the matter of what to do with said baby. She was too young to take care of one efficiently, what with ho she was raised and didn't want to subject a child to that sort of trauma, but neither did she want to get an abortion either because she grew to love the child that was growing inside of her.

So in the end, Erin had to give Thea up in order to give her the life that Erin never could have. The young detective never could have imagined that Thea would ever find her way back to Chicago.

Erin remembered that day; the day that she had given Thea up for adoption. Tears pricked her eyes as the thought came to her.

 _A younger Erin, hair all matted and face all red, sweaty from the delivery process, lied down in her bed, breathing heavily from the most daunting and painful experience of her life. Jesus Christ, if there was one thing she could never understand, it was how a simple night of pleasure could turn into a scourge of pain that ripped a woman's body apart. The nurse had taken the screaming child away, clearly to get it cleaned up since it was covered in birth fluid. Erin didn't mind though, for she could use the peace and quiet to think about where she was going with her life now._

 _Six hours. Six damn hours of labor and pushing and only now did Erin feel like she could relax. And yet, she just couldn't. The reason being was that the demon spawn that was originally inside of her was bawling its lungs out, giving her a major headache. And yet, despite that, she wanted nothing more than to hold that baby in her arms. It was her flesh and blood, her legacy. And she didn't want to regret anything from giving it up._

 _Even now, saying that tore her heart in two. She was giving up her baby. After nine months of carrying that fetus to term, Erin was going to give her away, to the system that failed her, so that, god willing, a family would take in this baby and give it all the love and affection that Erin felt she couldn't afford to give. She was only fifteen, working as a CI for the police, going to a school that mostly despised her, and to top it off, she was afraid of what her mother would do to her if she found out about her pregnancy and by extension the child. She couldn't allow her mother to get her hooks onto the baby. The only way to prevent that was to get her as far away from Chicago as possible._

 _Erin looked to her left, where Hank sat. As Erin didn't have her boyfriend here, she asked Hank to be in the room for support, basically a simple way of saying 'I need to squeeze the life out of your hand while I push an unbearable mass of flesh and blood out of my birth canal, and I don't care if I break your fingers doing it' needless to say, hank was more than likely going to be dealing with a large purple hand for the next few days. He was still nursing his hand, whimpering slightly and she was sure that he was cursing under his breath._

 _She smiled, defiantly deciding that she wasn't going to stay silent on the matter. Here was Hank Voight, a great cop, reduced to a whimpering baby, moaning in pain at the sight of his hand, after witnessing his adopted daughter in childbirth._

 _Her thoughts were interrupted when she heard the nurse say "Miss Lindsay?" Erin turned looking at the nurse. In her arms, was a bundle of pink blankets, signifying that the child she had just given birth to was a girl._

 _The nurse moved the bundle slightly, showing the baby's face to Erin for the first time. It was chubby and red faced, whimpering and moving slightly in the confines of her blankets. It stirred a feeling of guilt in her heart. The baby was acting in manner reminiscent of reaching out for its mother._

 _Without even realizing what she was saying, Erin quickly blurted out the words before she could stop them from exiting her mouth. "Can... Can I hold her?" Immediately Erin stiffened surprised by her own words. However before she could stop her, the nurse held out the baby, practically dumping the newborn in her arms._

 _In that moment, the world stopped as Erin found herself staring into the baby's eyes. Baby blue eyes looked up at hazel. Erin felt her heart stop and her breath got caught in her throat as the baby- no her daughter cooed up at her, a goofy chortle escaping from her throat._

 _As Erin looked at her daughter, the sound of a shutter filled her ears. She turned to see Voight with a camera a tender smile on his face. Despite herself, Erin let out a smile, before glancing back at the little girl in her arms. She was so small._

 _"Hello… Althea" she whispered. It was the first and last time that she would ever say her daughter's name._

Erin… are you ok?" Will asked, snapping Erin out of her memory. She gave Will a glare; partially from his interrupting her and partially from the heartache she was feeling. "Yes! I'm fine!" she snapped at him, despite the fact that she was actually feeling quite terrible. It was the first time she had thought about that day in years and even after all this time, it still managed to make her regret everything about the choices she made that day.

Will bit his lip, clearly unnerved by the look on Erin's face, but even angry, Erin could clearly make out the concern in his eyes. He pointed to his eye and mouthed the words "You're crying" to her.

Erin blinked. Then blinked again, before raising her hand to her cheek. As soon as her hand touched her cheek, she became aware of the tears that were silently making their way down her face. She had been crying.

"I…" Erin paused, trying to come up with the right words. She just couldn't believe it after over a decade of pushing any thought of Thea away, life decided to throw in a wrench and force Erin to form a bond with her newly discovered, or rather recovered, teenage daughter. It wasn't something that she didn't want. But just how could she uproot Thea from her life, let alone be apart of it. How was she going to be a mother to this child? How could she, when she abandoned her a day after her birth? It was unforgivable. And Erin… Oh god. What was she going to do? What if Thea asked for her? It wasn't uncommon for victims top ask how they ended up in the hospital.

Erin took in a breath closing her eyes, and rubbing them, trying to clear her face of the tears and stop her crying. At the very least, he wasn't exactly being loud and attracting attention to herself.

"How long has she been here? In Chicago I mean." She asked quickly, wanting to learn everything she could about Thea, or at least what the doctor could tell her.

Will gestured to the file that he had given Erin. "Its all in there, if you want to take a look at it." He said "besides, wouldn't you want to ask her yourself?" he asked.

Erin stiffened, knowing that in all honesty that Will was trying to imply that she should go and officially meet her daughter.

Erin's heart clenched with anxiety. Could she? Could she really face Thea, now that she knew her connection to the young girl?

Erin knew herself all too well. It was like she was caught in a time loop. Her mother was an uncaring bitch who preferred her drink over her flesh and blood. Sure Erin wasn't the same as her mother, but that didn't mean that Thea would be forgiving when she cane face to face with the woman who abandoned her and left her in the foster care system, hoping that she would be adopted. Guess she never was, and Erin could only blame herself for that.

Erin weighed her options. She regretted giving up Thea once, despite thinking that it was the right thing to do. Could she really do it again? She felt torn. A part of her wanted to run in the room that Thea was in and embrace her like she should have done a decade ago. The other half wanted to bolt from the hospital and never look back, afraid to see the look on Thea's face when told Erin was her biological mother.

But she would be looking for answers and only Erin could give them to her. Plus Erin had some questions to ask Thea as well. Mainly how she ended up in the hospital when she looked relatively healthy.

Or was it that she was yearning to see her daughters face while she was awake?

Erin stood up, handing the file back to Will "take me too her." she requested the doctor.

Will nodded, before turning, gesturing for Erin to follow him "come with me" He said, leading her to one of the rooms in the lobby. He stood next to the door, before opening it, and stepping aside, allowing Erin to enter the room. she made her way next to the bed and sat down in the chair beside it, taking a real good look at her daughter.

Her skin was relatively the same shade as Erin's, as was her skin. However her face was rounder and more reminiscent of …

A sudden quiet moan filled the air as Thea stirred slightly, before her eyes opened, revealing baby blue eyes.

Eyes that looked just like her fathers.

Erin felt her breath hitch as she locked eyes with Thea, hazel meeting blue. She could see the confusion in Thea's eyes, which made her feel even guiltier. Immediately she was overcome by many emotions, love ,guilt, heartbreak, regret, horror, all of them overloading her senses.

Erin opened her mouth to say something… Anything to Thea, when her eyes were drawn to the pendant around Thea's neck and everything suddenly came to a grinding halt

Before Thea could even think to say anything, Erin bolted from the chair and ran out of the room, out into the lobby and out of the hospital, tears streaming down her face.

Because the pendant that Thea was wearing was the same one that HE gave to HER, the night Thea was conceived.

* * *

 **I had too. Thea's father will be introduced later on, proving a nice little wrench to a subplot that will come later down the line. as always, leave your thoughts and stay tuned.**


	5. Chapter 5

**I want to thank everyone who followed this story. I am so happy to get responses from you. Thank you Mark for this story idea!**

* * *

By the time Erin regained any senses that had long since abandoned her, she found herself sitting in her car at the parking lot of her apartment, her hands gripping the steering wheel so tightly her knuckles were as white as a sheet, tears streaming down her face. Hank would probably kill her for skipping work, but Erin's emotions were mixed in a giant bundle of conflict, preventing her from thinking clearly and going back to the squad house was the last thing on her mind. She was too preoccupied with the look on Thea's face when their eyes met to even consider doing anything else.

Looking back Thea looked just like she had at that age, almost alarmingly so. Even the shape of her face and her skin tone where similar to Erin's. What alarmed Erin even more though, was the resemblance she had to the man who was her father. It wasn't just her eyes. She had his smile. His hair.

Erin shook her head, trying to rid any and all thoughts of the man from her mind. it had been years since she had seen him and to be quite honest, they weren't on the best of terms to begin with. Despite having a massive crush on him back them, their relationship was in constant turmoil due to their irreconcilable differences. At the time it didn't seem like a problem, but looking back, he had been one of the worst decisions she had ever made. It wasn't like he had been a bad guy, quite the opposite. He was a gentleman who never laid a hand on her and actually defended her from those who looked down at her in high school. As a matter of fact, he was the only one who understood her as they both shared a drug problem in the past.

The problem came into play before they graduated. She could see it in his eyes; he wanted to leave. He was going to be the one who left her behind. And left her behind, he did. He never explained where he was going or when he would return. Or if he had, Erin refused to acknowledge this fact and simply pushed him away, throwing herself into her work at the police academy and essentially treated him as a stranger. Not long after, she lost all contact with him completely. What was worse was that like leaving Thea behind, she never came to regret it, simply ignoring it and moving on with her life.

But now Thea was back and her life would never be the same.

* * *

Meanwhile back at the hospital a confused Thea remained in bed, staring at the chair where the young woman that had been sitting there left behind when she ran off. She had been laying there for maybe a half an hour (not really it had only been a few seconds) trying to process just what had happened. One moment she was there. The next, she was running out the door like someone had been shooting at her.

Ok maybe that was being a little dramatic, but the point was that Thea was quite confused right now and she just didn't understand what was going on. Who was that woman and why had she run off like that? Thea would have gone after her, but being stuck in the bed with an oxygen tube wrapped around her head made that kind of impossible.

Thea's reverie was interrupted when a dark haired nurse, with her hair tied up in a ponytail. She had a kind smile and walked with a sense of purpose. In her hands was a clipboard, most likely filled with a medical report that told her what had gone wrong with Thea.

Not that Thea was ignorant of her condition. She had spent a large mount of time in the infirmary of any orphanage she was in or her bed at any foster home she just happened to be in. she hated it, but there was little that could be done about her condition because she couldn't afford anything else. She was still a minor and therefore couldn't consent to anything with her foster parents permission and they wouldn't be willing to do that either.

The nurse walked up to Thea, giving the young girl a tender smile. "Althea Bush?" she asked

Thea blinked looking up at the nurse "My name is Natalie Manning. You're in Gaffney medical center. You have been asleep for several hours now. Your blood pressure spiked due to anxiety and it was very near fatal, but we were able to get it under control. But we should speak about how you ended up in that situation. Do you remember anything about this morning?"

Thea looked at Natalie the words she had said quite literally flying over her head; she didn't so much as twitch a muscle in response and instead of answering the nurse directly, opted to ask a question of her own "who was that woman?"

Dr. Manning blinked, before glancing at the young girl on the bed, then the doorway that Erin had ran out of, then back to Althea "oh," she began "that was Detective Lindsey of the Chicago Intelligence Unit"

Thea stiffened, realizing exactly what that meant. There was supposed to be a guest speaker in one of her classes, a cop from one of the units that littered the city. Apparently this Detective Lindsey was that guest speaker. Apparently, she had also saved her life

Natalie, realizing that it would be impossible to get any sort of response from the girl now that her curiosity had peaked upon the mention of Erin instead decided to see if there was anything else she could do for the girl. "Is there anything else we can do for you, Ms. Bush?" Natalie asked

Thea frowned, her thoughts drifting to Detective Lindsey "is there anyway you can drop me off at the Chicago intelligence unit? I would like to thank detective Lindsey"

Natalie shook her head. "I'm sorry, but we have to make sure that you are alright. I would like to keep you overnight for observation, and then have your parents come to pick you up tomorrow. Unless you want them to come now and she you," she added with a smile.

Thea bit her lip, before turning her head away from the nurse and sinking into her pillows. "No…. there isn't anybody I want you to call right now." she responded glumly. Her foster parents would come soon enough anyway.

* * *

Inside her apartment, Erin had been inside a cupboard in the living room, digging out her old high school yearbook. One would think that she wouldn't want to look at it because of all the time she had spent trying and almost failing to fit in high school, but she was going to have to look at it in order to find some sense of peace right now. Or maybe just to confirm her suspicions about her life right about now.

However, she wasn't able to get very far because just as she was about to reach the dusty old yearbook that she had stashed away in here, then the doorbell rang. The sudden surprise of the sound caused Erin to jump, unfortunately hitting her head against the top of the cupboard.

"Ow!" she groaned, pulling her head out of the cupboard and raising a hand to rub the sore spot on the top of her head. Five minutes. She just needed five more minutes and she wouldn't have a busted cranium right about now. Jesus people were so annoying sometimes. She gave a deep sigh, standing up, while rubbing her head. The doorbell rang again, signaling the visitor's impatience "I'm coming!" Erin called, unable to bite back her annoyance as she walked to the door. She looked out the keyhole, seeing Jay in all his worried glory.

This was NOT something she needed right now. Erin bit her lip, before unchaining the door and opening it. "Jay…" she whispered hoarsely.

Jay gave Erin a small lopsided grin "Hey…" despite the smile on his face; there was a twinkle in his eye that showed his concern. It wasn't his fault that Erin had decided to play hooky. She was in shock.

Still if he took the time to get over here, she might as well make an effort to be cordial at the moment. She stepped aside allowing him to walk inside the house, and then shut the door behind him. The two stared each other down, not giving an inch

"Are you ok? You didn't come back to the precinct after you gave that speech in school"

Erin stiffened, realizing after everything that she had been through; she had forgotten to go back to school and give the speech.

Hank was going to kill her for that! If he wasn't going to already be upset with her for skipping out on work, which he probably was. At least she could honestly tell him she wasn't doing it for drugs. The only issue was how he was going to take the fact that his granddaughter was alive and well? Probably not very well considering it had only been a few days since his revenge murder of his son's killer. Erin wasn't too sure if he would ever be happy ever again, even with that revelation. Erin sure hadn't been happy, though that was because she was feeling surprised and scared all at the same time. Happy was the last thing on her mind because being a part of her daughter's life had been the last thing she wanted at the time and certainly didn't feel ready now.

"I've… I've… just had a bad day." Erin stammered, not sure what to say otherwise. It wasn't enough to convince Jay though, who gave her a frown. He folded his arms "That can't be it Erin. I know you." he said, his voice soft and sympathetic.

Erin bit her lip, annoyed at his response"I know you do Jay. But I don't always have to explain myself to you. I'm a big girl" it was a low blow and she knew it, but she was more than anxious to get Jay out of the apartment. She didn't have time to have other people worry about her.

That definitely struck a cord with Jay and he slumped his shoulders dismayed by her answer. He stepped forward, rubbing a hand on Erin's cheek "Erin… I don't want to lose you. I want to help you."

Erin could understand that. She was Jay's lover and partner. Of course they had been friends for years before that, but she never told him about Thea. The only person that did know about her was Hank and he vowed never to speak of her again for Erin's sake. It hurt too much already. How was she supposed to explain to him that her daughter had come back to her and was now the source of the turmoil that was plaguing her? He would never forgive her. Tears pricked the corner of her eyes at the thought of that.

"You can't help me." Erin wanted to say, but before she could, Jay gently pressed his lips against hers silencing her words before she could even attempt to get them out of her mouth.

* * *

 **Expect a fight in the next chapter. Just warning you.**


	6. Chapter 6

**That was fast! I actually had a bit of trouble with this chapter, trying to make it emotional at points. Please enjoy this chapter.**

* * *

Erin placed her hands on Jay's chest, practically melting as her lover wrapped his arms around her back and pulled her close. Erin moaned slightly, pressing her deeper into the kiss, before suddenly pushing off of Jay, pulling away from his lip, her eyes flashing as Jay stepped back, surprised by Erin's sudden resistance. For one, she never would be resistant unless something was emotionally bothering her, and two, it seemed so out of left field since just yesterday, she seemed as happy as a bird and nothing and he repeats nothing could possibly go wrong in the span of a few hours right? ok maybe he was being a bit harsh but seriously, she left work earlier today with a wide smile on her face and then, not ore than an hour later, she suddenly goes dark and never returns to the precinct and refuses to take any calls (Erin had been ignoring the constant phone calls as she was too worried about Thea, following the whole ordeal after the hospital). The only reason nobody at intelligence panic was because Erin's GPS showed her at home. Which was how Jay ended up in the situation he was in.

Erin's eyes narrowed and her face twisted into a snarl as she raised a hand and wiped her lips before asking in an annoyed tone "WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?" she couldn't believe the nerve of Jay! What made him think that his lips were the perfect remedy for her right now? How about asking what was wrong first. Ok, he said he wanted to help, but never even bothered to ask what was wrong. Then again, Erin probably wouldn't tell him right now anyway. The only person she could talk to about it was Hank, and he wasn't exactly the best person to talk to right now.

Jay blinked, surprised by Erin's tone. He shifted uncomfortably, before glancing at her, a frown appearing on his face and he stiffened, "I was worried. You just took off this morning and you didn't tell anyone. What happened?" he asked.

Oh now he asks? Still Erin wasn't going to tell him about Thea. Jay was one of the best things in her life and even if he didn't freak out at the idea of Erin being a mother, he would likely be disappointed in the simple fact that she had kept that from him. But why should he complain? Erin didn't tell anybody about Thea, so if he had a problem with that, it was his fault not hers.

Which now left Erin in the impossible position of needing to have to lie to Jay in order to be able to cover for her actions. The problem was that she wasn't sure how to be able to do that since there was no possible explanation that she could come up with that could be convincing enough to not warrant any sort of suspicion with Jay.

So like any self-respecting person with a secret, Erin pursed her lips, folded her arms and said quite plainly. "Nothing. I just needed to be alone." Ok cue the disbelief. Not in the mood to even continue this conversation she turned away, ready to tune out anything Jay had to say about the conversation.

Jay's jaw dropped open and his eyes widened to the size of diner plates at Erin's response. "Erin? Do you hear yourself right now? When have you ever decided to just skip work and I quote 'because you could' its unheard of! The last time you did that it was with Nadia."

Erin stiffened upon hearing Jay and she turned her head, her eyes wide with horror at what he was insinuating, before she reared her hand back and slapped him across the face, leaving an angry red handprint on his cheek

"How DARE you?" she growled, he eyes flashing dangerously. "Get out of my house." Jay straightened up, before looking at Erin and sighing, before moving past her and left the apartment, not even saying a word.

Erin stood there a moment, arms crossed as she glanced at her door, before turning her head back to the open pantry where she had been looking for the yearbook. Without a moment to lose, she went back to looking for it, as if nothing had happened.

* * *

Thea sighed as she heard the door to her room open and in walked her current foster father. She however refused to refer to him as her father, only referring to him by his first name (as she did with his wife), because for one they weren't her parents and to there wasn't any chance for her to find a family at the rate that was going. She had lost count over the past few years, all she knew was that he and his wife were doing ok compared to some of the others she had over the years. she just wasn't expecting anything to change anytime soon. Sooner or later he just wouldn't be able to make up his mind and then she would end up back in the foster care system. It was all about the money with them. They didn't want her any more than she would end up wanting them after they abandoned her. At least when she was aged out of foster care, she would be spared the constant heartbreak.

Her foster father looked down at her with concern "Thea. Are you ok?" he asked softly.

There it was. The fake concern that she had heard over and over again ever since anyone found out about her condition. She didn't know why she even bothered showing anyone who cared respect over this. Thea sighed, looking at the older man with a hint of annoyance. "Yes… everything is fine." She said, before glancing at her lap.

Was it too much to ask to stay in this hospital bed? Well axially it was, considering that her foster family had to pay for it. Well at the very least, she now knew where to find detective Lindsey once she got out of here. That is if she could convince her foster father to actually drive her to the Chicago intelligence unit. Or at the very least get there after school. ok, maybe that was the better option. What her foster parents didn't know, definitely wouldn't hurt them didn't know.

Not only that, but for the briefest of moments, she felt something when she stared at the police officers face. She wasn't sure what it was, but Detective Lindsey seemed to be familiar to her and Thea couldn't not for the life of her figure out why. It was a new, foreign feeling and she was determined to figure out what the cause of it was

Thea wasn't sure why she felt the way, but she knew that she had to follow this trail of thought, if only to satisfy her ever-growing curiosity. Plus it would get her out of the house for a while. While her foster parents were good people, she just didn't like being around her foster parents, and that meant every foster parent she ever had, good or bad. She just didn't want to get to close to them.

Well she would be out of this hospital tomorrow once the observation period as Natalie called it was complete and the first thing she was going to do after getting home would be getting down to the Intelligence unit to thank the woman who saved her life

* * *

Erin sat on her couch, going through her high school yearbook. After managing to find the dusty old thing buried under the insane amount of scrapbooks that she had from her childhood years with Voight she finally had it in her lap and was staring at the front cover of it for the past few minutes now. That was about as far as she had been able t get, because now she was trembling, almost unwilling to open the book and find her former flame. She felt scared, as if staring at the father of her child would bring back all the buried memories that she had of him… god she couldn't even bare to think of his name, let alone look at his picture. How was she going to be able to deal with this? She had seen so much of him in Thea from the briefest moment that she saw her face in the hospital.

Even then what was she going to do? Even if she could look at his picture, she definitely wouldn't be able to call him even if she knew where he was and had his number. What was she going to say "oh hi… its me. You know Erin? The girl you left knocked up and never saw again? Oh by the way, she's back and she looks a lot like you."

Ok well she never told him she had been pregnant, but the point was that talking to him would be extremely difficult to do after all these years, even if the man was willing to talk to her. Erin wasn't even sure she wanted to talk to him, considering how they had ended. Would he even care that he was a father? Even if he did, there was the little problem of relocating. Sure he might care about Thea, but that didn't mean that he would drop everything to be with Erin and be a father to Thea.

What a second? Be with her? Erin shivered at the thought. How could she be thinking like that? She had Jay, and she ended things with her former flame because of irreconcilable differences. She couldn't be with him, let alone be a mother to Thea. She was too young and not fit for the job, given where she was in her life now. She didn't feel ready to have (another) baby, let alone be a mother to a teenager that she had abandoned. Thea could never know about their relationship to one another. She had to be with a loving family who could be the parts that she needed.

So why was it that Erin so desperately wanted to see her again? To at least make sure that she was ok? That's what she was telling herself at least. But she just couldn't bring herself to do so. It was just too painful. She left Thea to fend for herself in an orphanage because she was too young to properly do it herself and she didn't want to force Hank to do it, even though he might have been able to. And now that fate had given her a chance to rectify her mistakes, she was just too afraid to take that chance. She was such a terrible person. She felt as bad as her own mother had been with her.

Erin sighed, before glancing back at the yearbook. Her hands were trembling as she thought about all the things she could have had with Thea. Her first steps, her first words tooth, first day of school. Erin closed her eyes as fresh tears welled up in her eyes. She was a terrible person, more willing to give up the life of a child than she was to wreck her own life because of a mistake.

With a loud agonizing scream, she threw the book across the room, letting it crash to the floor, before sinking to the floor, curling up into a ball. She let out an agonizing wail as she fell to her side, crying.

"I'm sorry,…" she whispered, holding herself tightly. "I'm so sorry.

* * *

 **Poor Erin. I feel bad for what I'm putting her through. Hope I'm not making her too OCC though. Leave any thoughts or tips if you like!**


	7. Chapter 7

**Another chapter! I hope I didn't keep everyone waiting. I do want to clear some things up though. Jay and Erin are still a couple in this story so don't worry about that, but the relationship focused in this story will be about Thea and Erin discovering and reconnecting. Jay will still play a part in the story though, but I must admit that one of my weaknesses as a writer is character screen time and development. He probably won't appear much, like most of the other CPD cast, but only because I'm devoting most of my time to Erin and Thea. Only certain characters will appear, such as Hank, if and only if it relates to the plot and development of the main characters. Otherwise most characters will appear only in the background or in passing.**

* * *

Erin sat on the floor for who knew how long, but by the time she had managed to pull herself together, the sun had well since set, leaving the moonlight to shine in her apartment. She couldn't believe herself. Had she seriously spent so many hours crying curled onto the floor? Well, she couldn't exactly say that it was for no reason because she knew exactly why she was crying and she couldn't make any argument to make her self feel better or tell herself that it didn't matter. But she kept telling herself that fixing it was impossible. How could Thea accept her after she had abandoned her as an infant? Erin hadn't forgiven her mother for all the things that the elder woman had put her through. Heck scratch that, Erin still hadn't forgiven her lover for abandoning her (though Erin could admit that she had pushed him away and never told him that she was pregnant with their daughter)! So if Thea was anything like her mother, then forgiveness was not sounding very forthcoming.

So if there was anything that Erin could take away from her current situation, it was that she was more than likely not going to have any sort of happy ending from this, even if she could bring herself to face Thea again. She couldn't even bring herself to be in the same room as her daughter, as the memories that she had of the very last time Erin had saw Thea were just too much for her to handle without running off. What was she going to do if she was going to try and have a decent conversation with Thea?

The young woman sat up, blinking the few tears that she had away, the rest drying on her face from her long time of crying. With a heavy sigh, Erin wiped her face with her hand. "Jay" she whispered, realizing just how badly she needed him right now. The problem was that she pushed him away, and he was not someone tat she needed to talk too right now. No. If anything, Voight was the one to talk too; he was going to come looking for her anyway, seeing as how he might think she was having another Nadia episode "What am I going to do?' she whispered aloud as she sat on her butt, hugging her legs to her chest every and all theory's going through her mind. Erin knew herself all too well. She would definitely try and hide this from hank, but Hank was stubborn and would definitely end up getting the truth from her. The question was would he like the truth, or would he even believe her?

"But... what would he have me do?" Erin wondered aloud. Erin wasn't exactly thrilled at the prospect of being a mother to a girl she had abandoned, if only because she gave Thea up for the very reason of hoping that she would end up in a loving home with people who could take care of her. Since that clearly wasn't the case now, she couldn't imagine Hank forcing her to be a mother, but he definitely wouldn't allow Erin to ignore the fact that Thea was back in Chicago. After losing his own son, this actually might seem like a blessing to him, but Erin just couldn't be too sure that it was the best thing for Thea. She and Hank had agreed that they couldn't have a part in Thea's life!

 _Erin held the infant in her arms, unable to bring herself to look away from Thea's chubby adorable little face. She had long since fallen asleep after having been expelled fro, her mothers body, lightly snoring, her little chest moving up and down with each little breath that she took. Ironically, Erin herself didn't feel the least bit tired, considering that she had spent hours and hours of going through the exhausting and extensive process of labor. Instead she was devoting every second of her life right now to looking at her daughter. It was likely going to be the last time she ever saw her. Even though Erin would repress every memory of this day after Thea was gone, she couldn't help but want to remain in this perfect little moment for as long as she could make it last._

 _Her baby. Thea was HER baby. And that was the problem. Erin just couldn't allow this sweet and adorable infant, this pure soul to be dragged into the same world that she herself didn't yet fully understand. Thea would stand a better chance at life with someone who could afford to take care of a baby._

 _It was the right thing to do, for both herself and her daughter. So why did it feel like her heart was ripping itself in two. Erin frowned then shook her head. No. She had to let go of Thea. She had to. For her sake._

 _"Erin?" came the concerned voice of Hank. Erin had almost forgotten about him; she had been too busy staring down at her baby. Erin snapped her head up, careful not to jostle the sleeping infant, glancing at Hank. He was giving her a pensive look, his eyes full of pain and sympathy. Erin had seen that look before many times, whenever they had talked about giving Thea up for adoption._

 _"Hank… I don't know if I can… she is my baby," she glanced back at the sleeping infant I love my baby." She whispered, holding Thea close to her chest. As if in response, the infant curled closer to Erin, softly whining in its sleep. Erin couldn't help but smile and she dropped her head closer to the infant, lightly pecking Thea's forehead. Afterwards she looked back at Hank, who looked even more somber, if that was even possible "Erin. We have been over this." He told her, his voice gentle, yet firm_

 _"I can't just leave her Hank. I'm not my mother" Erin whispered harshly, giving her foster father the fiercest glare that she could possibly muster._

 _Voight sighed rubbing the bridge of his nose with one hand "I know… Erin but you are still young, you just got off drugs and the last thing we want is for Bunny to be the one raising this child." He said seriously, his tone leaving no room for argument._

 _Erin let out a huff, knowing that Voight had a point. If Bunny ever found out about Thea… No. She couldn't let that happen. Not to her daughter… Erin felt tears well up in her eyes and she looked back at the slumbering infant, placing a gentle kiss on the baby's forehead, then nose then lips, the floodgates opening and tears falling down her face and onto Thea, who twitched slightly in irritation, letting out little whimpers that mixed in with her mothers sobs._

 _It was the last time she ever touched her baby._

Erin, without even realizing it, had already walked to her kitchen and grabbed her phone, finally realizing that in her trip down memory lane her body acted out on its own and she was now staring at her cell phone, the caller I.D telling her that she was calling Voight. She gave a slight gasp, surprised by her actions, but there wasn't any time for her to regret it because a moment later she heard Voight's voice come out of the phone. "Erin?" He sounded extremely concerned "care to explain to me why you never showed up for work today after this morning?" he was being surprisingly mellow for a guy who was probably worrying about how and why one of his detectives went AWOL, and given how close they were, it was surprising that there wasn't a squad of police cars right outside her apartment. Or that he hadn't gotten the whole squad to come rushing in to her apartment and kick down the door hoping that they wouldn't find her face down on the floor with drugs and alcohol everywhere. The last thing Erin needed was for her apartment to be overrun with concerned friends. Maybe a quick phone call to Hank would make her feel better. Or make things worse. Either way, it was the right thing to do.

With a shaky hand, Erin lifted the phone up to her ear, and with a slight tremor in her voice, she said I a hushed tone, barely above a whisper "Hank… she's back…"

* * *

The next day, Thea was finally released from the hospital after having to deal with a very large amount of paperwork (or more accurately her stepfather did) and on her way back home.

"Worst day EVER" Thea said with a massive trudge in her step as she got out of her stepfathers car. Not only was she forced to go to the hospital over her heart condition, she now had to spend the entire day making up for two days of homework she was missing out on. needless to say, she was not looking forward to the large mount of makeup work that she had to deal with. Oh well, it had to be done. That and she would avoid looks from people who would be curious about what had happened to her, something that Thea did not want to answer.

Her stepfather Douglas Dwight MacEisenhower was less than amused by Thea's attitude. Having been a former FBI agent who trained many of the finest agents in the bureau, he was used to having to discipline the trainee. However he never worked with a teenage girl before (whom his wife a PTSD consular insisted they adopted, though he was currently ok with being her foster father for now) he felt he had his work cut out for him. He had been trying to come up with the best ways to integrate Thea into his family. She seemed so resistant to any form of attachment, which according to her case file was because she had abandonment issues. This was because a lot of the foster homes she went to were not exactly the best ad didn't care for her at all, not even taking her condition into any sort of account while raising her. Having seen the horrors of war and what it could do to people, Dwight was sympathetic to a young girl who never even had the chance to be normal. Guess he was a sucker for sobs stories. Still, Thea was being a little resistant, but hopefully, he would be able to break through the barriers and help her heal, or at the very least, his wife would. She was far better at talking to people than he was (just ask the men he had under his command. They were still hurting from his tough regiment. It took years of therapy to get them to even feel their bones again). To make a long story short, Dwight firmly believed that Thea was going to be his biggest challenge yet.

The two walked over to the house a rather small one, but it did have two stories on it. It was rather a standard family home, not at all what Thea was used to having been placed in apartments and group homes throughout her life. While she did enjoy it here, especially compared to what had come before, she still wasn't convinced that this was right for her. It didn't help that all she could think about was the cop that had gotten her to the hospital. Detective Lindsay. Surely there was a reason the young woman had run off. And Thea was determined to find out why. Most of all though, she wanted to thank her. Sure it was part of her job, but Thea still felt that detective Lindsay deserved the praise.

Plus, there was a constant nagging about that face. Where in the world had she seen Detective Lindsay before? it was such an odd feeling. It wasn't like Thea had ever seen her before, on the news or in the paper. Maybe the detective knew why. Perhaps they ran into each other when Thea was younger? No, Thea had never even been to Chicago before, so that was out of the question.

Her stepfather managed to open the door and without a moment to lose, Thea bolted to her room "Going to do homework!" she cried. She ran up the stairs and into her room, slamming the door shut and locking it, before running to her laptop and firing up the computer.

"Detective Lindsay" she whispered, typing in the Detectives name in the search engine. Within minutes, she would find out everything she needed to know. Thea frowned. "Who are you?"

* * *

 **Well, what do you think? Thea's family home will play a part in the turning point of this story later on, once Erin and Thea reunite in the next few chapters or so.**


	8. Chapter 8

**I think I'm starting to sound like a broken record whenever I upload a chapter, but hey, I'm happy whenever I do upload one. I think this might be the last chapter before the first turning point in the story. I just want to apologize if anyone thinks that this story is going slow, thats just how I roll.**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

Erin awoke the next day on the floor, her phone beside her and her side sore and cold. Wait a second, why in the world would she be on the floor? Oh. That's right, after her long conversation with Hank she curled up on the floor and cried herself to sleep, not feeling any better about the conversation that she had with Hank or the situation that she found herself; she wanted desperately to see Thea again and explain everything to her, but at the same time was afraid of the ensuing conversation that would inevitably have to follow; a conversation that Erin had promised herself to never have. She never wanted to have it or at the very least force herself to. Thea wasn't even supposed to be a part of her life.

Erin groaned turning over so that she was on her stomach then pushed herself on her hands and knees. She groaned her muscles and joints screaming in protest as she pushed herself on one knee, wobbling to her feet. Her cloths felt confining and sticky like they belonged to someone else. She felt dirty and sweaty. She really needed a shower before heading to work today, despite not having done much yesterday. That and she needed some food because, she realized she had spent so much time crying a wondering about her life that she hadn't really served to take care of herself in the meantime.

This was the last time she was going to sleep by her phone. Erin sighed, trudging to her bathroom, and preceded to grab her toothbrush and toothpaste brushing her teeth, something she sorely needed, then spit in the sink and placed her toothbrush down before stripping herself of her cloths and stepping into the shower.

Letting the water run, Erin sank to the floor the water cleansing her but doing nothing to ease her pain. She began weeping, her head falling into her chest as she curled into a ball, her tears mixing in with the hot water. Her thought returned to her conversation with hank from the previous night, the guilt washing over her.

 _"Hank… she's back." Erin whispered, her voice catching in her throat as she struggled to get the words out of her mouth. She needed to do this. she had to. if hank found out about Thea otherwise, perhaps under the impression that Erin was hiding her from him, or attempting to bond with her and he caught them, then there were going to be quite a few arguments that Erin did not want to have to have with him (though she couldn't help but feel that this would turn out to be an argument regardless of anything)._

 _There was a moment of silence, a sense of stillness that told Erin that whatever Hank was going to say… well, lets just say that a cold shiver went up and down her spine. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea, considering that Hank had just lost his son some time ago. But it was to late and Erin would have to go through with this conversation; Hank wasn't just going to let it drop now that she had his attention. The question was how to be able to minimize the emotional damage done to either end of this conversation._

 _Erin held her breath simply waiting for Hank to respond that is if he was ever going to. There wasn't even a way to be able to hear his breath. After a few moments though, she finally spoke and when he did, Erin swore she could hear her own heart break. "Erin… she's gone. How could you possibly be sure that it's her"._

 _Erin wasn't sure whether or not Hank not believing her or he was speaking out of his own grief, but she was more than inclined to pick the latter because his voice sounded tired and weak, as if he had lost any and all hope that was in the world. "I thought that we were done chasing this path don't let your past haunt you."_

 _Erin almost, almost lost her temper at Hanks hopeless response, her hands clenching the phone so tightly that her knuckles were this close to turning white. She couldn't believe it. Was Hank that convinced that Thea was gone for good that he would believe Erin was going crazy at the thought of someone who physically resembled an older version of Thea?_

 _Maybe it was the grief talking, but thankfully Erin did have an ace up her sleeve "she has the pendent Hank" Erin responded a slight sense of pride in her voice "the pendant that I had when…." She stopped unable to continue; Hank would get the message anyway._

 _Hank had seen that pendant maybe a hundred times over the course of Erin's pregnancy, of course he would be able to realize what Erin was saying. "Are you sure?" he asked, a stern tone entering his voice_

 _Erin didn't like where this was going. It reminded her of the time she was 16 and she accidently broke one of Camille's favorite vases and as a result Voight didn't let her go to a school trip to Niagara falls. It wasn't like it was the worst moment of her life, but still she knew exactly where Hank was going with this line of questioning "Hank…"_

 _"Erin, are you sure you want to go down this path… we agreed that you shouldn't interfere with her life. It was what we agreed on. You remember that right?"_

 _Of course Erin remembered, she was there, but there was one tiny little detail that Hank was forgetting about, it was fifteen years ago when they made that decision and Erin had been much younger and heavily more naïve than she was now. At the time it was the right decision, but that wasn't what Erin was worried about. She was much more concerned about how Thea was going to react to the situation. She was young and curious. If anything, she was going to be looking for answers; given that Erin was a police officer, her exploits were rather public, so it wouldn't be too hard for Thea to track Erin down. What was Erin going to do when Thea found out the truth behind their relationship? It wasn't like Erin was going to tell her, but how was she going to fake an explanation?_

 _Speaking of which… Hank was not going to like what she had to say next._

 _"Hank, she… she might come looking for me. I… kind of met her at the hospital yesterday…." She winced, knowing that Hank wasn't going to take that lightly._

 _"ERIN!" Hank roared over the phone "what were you thinking? We talked about this, we can't have any contact with her!"_

 _That was the final straw for Erin. One night and they never spoke of Thea ever again. One night and Erin suppressed any instinct her pregnancy brought out in her. Well, this time, she had enough of listening for what was best for her or Thea. They were way past that now._

 _"I know that Hank! But it wasn't like I knew who she was; they ran a blood test at the hospital! After that things fell apart from there and I sort of ran off without telling her who I was. But she saw my face. It's only a matter of time. She is going to come looking for me, I just know it."_

 _"For both your sakes, I hope not Erin." Hank said gravely._

Erin let out another sob, before leaning back against the wall "what am I going to do?" She asked, unsure whether or not the water running down her face was her tears or the hot water.

A loud beeping noise stirred Thea from her sleep. She groaned her body feeling extremely uncomfortable and bent over… why in the world did she feel like this? Scratch that how in the world was it possible for anybody to feel like this? She opened her eyes, greeted to the sight of the sun glaring at her, forcing her to close her eyes and turn her head away, causing her to groan as her muscles screamed in protest at her movements. She sat up in her chair, raising her arms above her head and stretched, before running her hand through her tousled hair then glanced back at the computer screen in front of her. Despite her eyes being tired, both from just waking up and the many hours spent combing the web for information, she looked back at the screen that held the information she coveted.

On the screen it read " DETECTIVE ERIN LINDSAY OF THE CHICAGO INTELLIGENCE UNIT"

Thea read the information carefully. As expected, there wasn't much personal information about her, but it did share a lot of information about the deeds that the detective had done over the course of her career, such as dealing with serial killers. Thea was actually fascinated by the deeds detective Lindsay had done. She wouldn't do any of it herself, but it was amazing that the older woman went through "so that's who you are" the young girl whispered to herself. She continued reading the web page, until her concentration was broken by the sound of her foster mother "Thea? You awake? Its time for you to get ready for school young lady!"

Thea groaned, tearing her eyes away from the computer for a moment to glance at her clock. Her heart fell when she was the time. It was 7:30. She didn't have much time to do much more than what she was currently doing, not that she thought that her foster parents would allow her to sneak out of school. Her eyes widened and then she felt her mouth curl into a smile. That was the answer!

This was it. This was everything that Thea needed to find detective Lindsay and get the information that she needed. The young girl quickly saved the page to her favorites and sent it to her phone, before running to the bathroom and getting ready to start her day. After showering and brushing her teeth, Thea grabbed her backpack and ran out the door to the nearest bus stop. However she wasn't intending to go to school this morning. No she had other plans. Plans that were far more vital than a day at school. She needed to find Detective Lindsay. The pendant on her neck felt heavier all of a sudden, almost like it was responding to her feelings. She hoped that she wasn't going to pass out again. That was the last thing that she needed right now.

But more than anything, Thea now felt that she could track down Detective Lindsay and find out why she felt so drawn to her. It wasn't exactly the smartest thing to do, but it definitely felt like the right thing to do.

With a smile on her face, Thea managed to get to the bus stop, where sure enough the bus was waiting for her. She would need it to get to school. However the question was how was she going to sneak out of school? Well, she was going to figure it out when she got there. Well the good news was that Thea had many ways of being able to sneak out of her classes. The best time to get out of the school would be at lunchtime. So thats when Thea was going to leave. Then, she would finally have the answers that she craved.

* * *

 **Well, what do you think? How hard could it be to break out of a school? Thea is going to find that out for herself. Till next time!**


	9. Chapter 9

**Ok, I do want to apologize for the late update. My life has been Crazy with my job and what not, so I hope you understand. on the bright side, I think that we have reached a good point in the story that you have all been waiting for! Enjoy.**

* * *

Later that day, Erin walked into the precinct, a tired trudge in her step and a dejected look on her face. As a matter of fact, her whole appearance was a little more than off, and that was saying something, given what happened her her when Nadia died. Her shirt was carelessly thrown on, her her jacket was a slightly too large one and she had just thrown on the first pair of pants she found in the closet, a pair of blue sweat pants that Jay had gotten her for Christmas last year. Her hair was in a loose ponytail and her gear was not properly attached to the right locations. She had spent so much time crying that when she finally realized what time it was, she just decided 'screw it, I'll go to work, but stay inside'. Plus, it would make a good excuse to get Voight to talk to her, because he certainly wasn't helping her last night. She knew that he wanted her to let Thea live her life and not get involved, because Erin was in no shape to be a mother to a teenager, but Erin just couldn't. It was her daughter. How could she not worry about her now, now that she knew that she was here?

And besides, Thea was bound to be curious, given what happened at the hospital. Had Erin just lied to Thea, everything would be alright. Or had she refused to see her, Thea might not of known about her, but it was too late for that now. Time would be the only one to tell when Thea would find her way to her again. The only question was, would Erin be ready to face her when the time came for her to meet Thea face to face again.

Anyone want to guess the answer to that question?

Erin ignored the looks she got from her squad mates, who were positively wide eyed by her odd appearance; as expected Hank was looking at her with a livid, yet sympathetic expression. Good she had his attention. Erin made her way to her desk, sitting down while ignoring the looks she was getting. Jay of course looked ready to run over and ask her what was wrong. The only reason he wasn't was because he knew that Erin wasn't in the mood to even answer, let alone listen to his question. Not that she wanted everyone to ask her what was wrong, but that was going to be an unfortunate side effect of her appearance.

She began to do her work, but a rough hand landed on her shoulder and she looked up to see Hank, with a particular glint in his eye.

"Erin, my office, now." he growled. His tone left absolutely no room for argument. It was funny. The last time he spoke to her like that, it had been when he had forced her to move in with him after she had returned to the police force. Ok that wasn't so long ago, but it was the closet example that Erin could come up with at the moment.

Erin placed her hands on her desk and pushed her chair outward, startling Hank, who stepped back in shock, no doubt to the surprise force that Erin used to push herself out of her desk, but managed to maintain his façade and composure as Erin stood up, matching his glare with an equally annoyed one of her own.

The entire squad room went quiet at the sounds and everyone turned fully expecting the two closest members of the team reach their breaking point before they could even make it to Hanks office.

Despite this, Erin turned her gaze away from her foster father and instead, with as much control as she possibly could, walked over to his office, the elder man behind her. Once inside, Hank slammed the door shut, before turning his glare upon the young woman, but Erin didn't even budge. She wasn't afraid of Hank. She certainly wasn't going to start being afraid of his anytime soon

Neither party said anything, opting to glare at one another until the tension string snapped. Erin did not want to have this argument right now. She was 30 years old, she understood Hanks reasoning for not wanting her to get involved in Thea's life, but that was a long time ago. What if Thea wanted to see Erin to find the woman who gave birth to her? Who was Erin to refuse her that right? Thea was a young woman now. Erin may not have been able to raise her, but the choice of whether or not to be apart of her daughter's life was up to Thea now. Hank was not going to dictate her choices. Erin's, perhaps, but certainly not Thea's. Not by a long shot, if Erin had anything to say about it. If Erin had no right to be a part of Thea's life, then Hank certainly wasn't going to play overlord with Thea's either.

Erin's face deepened into a scowl and she folded her arms over her chest "I'm not discussing this with you Hank. Thea is my daughter; she is old enough to make her own choices. I will not have you take her away from me again!" the words were quiet as to not be heard by the others, Jay included (he was the one person that Erin did not want to find out about Thea, at least not from anyone other than her)

Hank shook his head "Erin, I know that you're upset but you have to understand…"

Erin beat him to it, her voice increasing in volume as she began her ranting speech. "understand what Hank, how it feels to carry a baby inside of you for nine months? To witness the birth of the only family who doesn't question you. have the only family you have ripped away from you because you know that you don't have what it takes to take care of her? to be forced to miss the important events of her life because you wanted her to have a better life? To abandon her when she returns to me?"

Hank said nothing for a moment., knowing that what Erin said was right. it had been a long time ago. but he knew something that Erin did not. "are you saying this because you're angry with me. Or do you want to be her mother? You can't be; its too late for that"

Erin stopped, as if what Hank told her suddenly slapped her in the face. Erin couldn't be Thea's mother. Biologically yes, they were mother and daughter, but Thea was not the woman that she would have been, if Erin was the one who raised her

Unfortunately pride got in the way of her judgment and she spat out with venom "like you were a father to Justin?"

Erin gasped in horror as her hands flew to her mouth as she realized what she had just said. how could she? she could not believe she had suddenly worked up the nerve to insult her commanding officers son to his face.

Hanks face slackened, shock and sadness written all over his face. His face turned into a scowl, filled with nothing but disgust and contempt. Without a word he turned around, unwilling to face Erin, before coldly stating "get out of here Erin. That's an order." When he heard no movement he barked at her, bitterness and anger in his voice " Now!"

Erin moved her eyes to the floor, unwilling to shed any tears. Instead she walked towards the door and left, trying her best to ignore the stares of everyone around her ad she made her way through the lobby. However, in her haste, she failed to notice a young girl coming up the steps, causing the two to collide with one another. she immediately stood her ground, managing to stay on her feet. The same could not be said for who she bumped in to. The individual, stumbled back from the shock of the collision. With a shocked cry, the girl lost her balance and would have gone backward down the stairs. Erin's police training immediately kicked in and she grabbed the girls flailing hand, and pulled her forward, helping her back on her feet.

Then, the girl looked up and Erin found herself staring into familiar blue eyes…. His eyes.

* * *

Thea yelped out in shock as she felt herself falling backwards towards the steps that she had previously come up on. She wasn't sure if the world knew this, but falling down the steps did in fact hurt. On top of that, she was not in the mood to have bones broken after making the trip to get to the police station after the pain staking trial of sneaking out of her school. That was definitely the last thing she needed, save for her foster parents finding out she flew the coop to try this.

Before she could lose her balance completely though, she felt a hand grab her own and pull her back on her feet, sparing her from having to suffer the pain and humiliation of falling down the stairs.

.

Thea placed a hand over her racing heart, letting out a relieved sigh, before glancing up at her savior and her jaw dropped. In front of her was the very woman that she had been looking for; detective Lindsey had saved her. again.

Despite herself, Thea began to blush. She wanted to talk to Detective Lindsey and instead managed to make a fool of herself. it was as if the world was trying to laugh at her misfortune by making her act like a fool in front of the woman she was looking for.

As well, despite having seen pictures of the young detective in front of her while researching her, Thea found herself transfixed by the woman before her. There was that same feeling she had felt when briefly looking at Erin when she woke up at the hospital, a sense of familiarity that Thea had never felt before. Something about her felt familiar, but Thea could not figure out why. Why was it that being near Detective Lindsay was the only time she ever felt like this?

However as she continued to gaze into Erin's face, Thea suddenly noticed something. The way that Erin looked at her… it was almost as if she was looking into a mirror. How had she not noticed this before? Erin looked quite a bit like Thea herself. Older to be sure, but the similarities were there. Just noticing that now made that feeling increase exponentially.

In her transfixed state, Thea didn't hear anyone speak. Until she heard Erin ask her "are you alright?"

* * *

Erin gazed into her daughters face, realizing just how much she reminded the young detective of both herself and of the young girls father. 'she looks just like him' she thought. At least, her eyes did, but Thea had her face, her skin tone. It was almost like she was looking at a younger version of herself.

"Are you alright?" she asked

Thea suddenly looked at Erin and cleared her throat, pulling her hand out of Erin's as she nodded "I'm fine, thank you…" she said her voice almost a whisper. Then with a little more confidence, she added "I was actually looking for you. I… wanted to thank you, for saving me earlier."

"oh!" Erin replied, but before she could continue, a confused voice behind her suddenly asked "Erin, what's going on?"

Erin and Thea looked behind them, seeing Jay looking at them, confusion evident all over his face. as well, everyone in the squad room was looking at them.

What was Erin going to do now?

* * *

 **Well, what do you think? Erin has quite a bit of explaining to do. Of course, she can't reveal the truth to anyone just yet so how is she going to get out of this one? Stay tuned.**


	10. Chapter 10

**Ok, I do want to apologize for the late update. I blame life and video games among other things, but now I'm back with a vengeance! I want to thank you all for being so patient with me. enjoy**

* * *

Erin stared at Thea through the glass of the interview room trying desperately to hold back tears, her arms folded as she had her back turned to Jay, who was torn between amazed shock, out right disgust and utter indignation. After Thea arrived, Erin led her to an interview room, for some privacy so they could talk, but before she could enter, Jay asked if they could talk. Which was how Erin ended up in this situation. Thea was waiting patiently for her, sipping on some water, probably missing school or time with friends if she had any, all because she wanted to see Erin Lindsey, her savior, and unbeknownst to her, her birth mother, the woman who gave her up when she was not even a day old because she wanted to give the baby her best chance, even if it was unwilling and at the request of the man she trusted most.

And now Erin was going to have to deal with the fallout of needing to explain this to her boyfriend, who thought Erin had enough issues as it was, considering that she hadn't told him about the nightmares that she was having, of both her involvement with Hanks role in the murder of Justin's killer and now of Thea, but now that he knew Thea was her daughter… well, she knew that there was a rift between them that would take a while to be mended. At the very least, she didn't have to hide it anymore, at least from her squad mates. But nothing could prepare her for having to reveal it to Thea herself, something that Erin was still not able to do. The words would catch in her throat. Jam in her brain anything but come out of her mouth. How was she supposed to explain to Thea the reasons for which she gave her up?

Erin sighed, letting her arms fall to her side before turning to Jay, who was wearing a disapproving scowl on his face "why didn't you tell me?" he asked, his voice barely level, almost a harsh whisper; he was seething with rage at Erins secret, or rather keeping it a secret from him. in short, Jay felt betrayed by the deception. He would have kept in a secret for her, because he loved her. Even more, he would have helped her bond with Thea, maybe even be a father to her, if she would allow him too. That is if Erin was ever going to tell the young girl the truth about her parentage.

Erin turned to Jay a disapproving look plastered on her otherwise beautiful face, her hazel eyes burning with annoyance, yet brimming with tears "I didn't tell you Jay because it wasn't something you needed to know; that anyone needed to know!" she snapped. "I WILL NOT have this discussion with you! Its none of your business!. The moment the words left her mouth, Erin regretted her words upon seeing the hurt look on her boyfriends face.

Jay's face softened, realizing the truth in Erin's words, and he gave her a sympathetic glance, before looking at Thea, then returning his gaze to the women who held his heart. " It may be none of my business, Erin, but that doesn't mean that I don't want to help you." he moved forward, attempting to envelope Erin in a soft hug; Erin turned away, her back facing him as he stepped forward halting his movements.

Erin felt tears roll down her face as she stared at her daughter, still waiting for her so that they could talk; the talk that they should have had before, when Erin was at the hospital, but she had been too overwhelmed by the shock of the revelation that Thea was her daughter. Erin still couldn't tell her, but at the very least, Erin could learn more about Thea this time around.

Erin grabbed the doorknob to the room, turning back to look at Jay "you can't help me here." She told him truthfully before she opened the door and walked into the room.

* * *

Thea glanced at the door, seeing Detective Lindsey enter the room, a clearly fake smile plastered on her face, her eyes red and bloodshot; the only reason that Thea knew that was because she had spent many nights looking in the mirror practicing that look.

Rather than point out the Detectives rather haphazard appearance, Thea simply offered a tender smile to the older woman "Detective…" she started "thanks for taking the time to meet with me!" she told Erin with a smile.

Erin stiffened, genuinely surprised that Thea was being polite; she wasn't expecting the girl to be rude considering how she took the time to come to the station to come see Erin, but still, Erin had run off, so she was surprised that wasn't the first thing to come out of Thea's mouth.

The young woman sat across from Thea, taking a moment to gather her thoughts before nodding "its my pleasure." She replied. God she looked so much like her. it was hard to believe that fifteen years had gone by since Erin had held this girl in her arms. How was Erin going to have a relationship with this girl? She wanted to, but…

Erin shook her head, before giving Thea a smile. "So… I don't think you came all the way here just to thank me, did you? I mean, isn't it a school day?" she asked Thea, who had the audacity to blush in mortification at the realization and she looked down at her hands, holding them lightly before glancing up at Erin once more "I... it is, but I just couldn't wait." The young girl mumbled sheepishly.

Dear god was Thea that much like her when she was the same age? Granted Erin was not in school because of her own mother and drug problem, not because she was on a quest to find her hero, but still! Well, at the very least Thea had pure intentions, even if she wasn't aware of the extreme awkward situation it put Erin in.

Erin gave a small chuckle, almost doubling over in her seat. Inevitably, this also led to Thea laughing and soon the two were giggling like good friends. Even in her incapacitated state however, Erin noted that Thea's laugh was similar to her own.

Soon the two calmed down and Erin had to wipe away a tear from her eye, returning her gaze to her daughter, who was still laughing, but from the looks of it, it seemed she was trying to hard to cover up her embarrassment.

A knock on the door startled to the two, abruptly stopping the laughter from the young girl. Erin bit her lip before standing up, trying very hard not to stomp over the door. If that was Jay again, she was going to kick him where it hurt most.

She opened the door ready to scream, but her voice died in her throat when she saw the look on Jays face. She had seen the look many times over the course of being his partner, both platonically and romantically as well as everything in between. "Erin, Hank wants me to take the girl home," he said quickly, before glancing behind her; he was looking at Thea "says that he needs you to get back to work." He whispered honestly, almost begrudgingly.

Erin sighed rubbing her eyes. There Hank went again, trying to prevent Erin from bonding with Thea. She knew he was only trying to protect her from the inevitable fallout, but she wasn't a child anymore. She knew she couldn't be a mother to Thea, but perhaps she could be a friend, and maybe…

But would Erin really go through the process of telling Thea the truth, or would it be better if Thea found out on her own? No, Thea would hate her if she didn't tell her the truth, but realistically telling her probably didn't sound like it would have a happy ending either now would it?

She looked at Jay, nodding, before whispering harshly "Tell Hank I'll take care of it! Sounding jut angry enough to give him the message 'tell him to stop telling me how to live my life'

Jay immediately understood, before walking away to give Hank the message.

Erin gave another long sigh, before closing the door and turning to Thea, Hank said that she needed to take Thea home, but he said nothing about how long she needed to take to do so. An idea struck her. A dangerously disobedient one. A smile slowly worked its way onto Erin's face. "So kid… Want to go out for ice cream?"

* * *

Thea never thought that she would ever be in the front seat of detective Erin's car on her way to get ice cream as a 'girls day out' sort of thing as a result of her sneaking out of school (which she was certain was going to send her foster parents out for a loop when they found out about it; they really didn't like desertion, so to speak), but here she was a smile on her face as Erin pulled up at a frozen yogurt and ice cream, according to her, the best one in the city. Not that she was complaining, Thea was going to consider this a treat. Besides it prolonged the time between getting yelled at by her foster parents. Hopefully Thea would be able to find a good excuse for what she had done before she got home later this afternoon.

She was practically bubbling with excitement. It couldn't possibly get much better than this could it? She looked over at Erin who, caught her gazing and looked at the younger girl, a small smile on her face, showing that she was enjoying this as much as Thea was.

Erin parked the car in the parking lot, getting out of the car and walked with Thea into the store. As soon as they did, the cold air of the shop hit them as well as the scent of the many flavors of ice cream, making them both hungrier and more excited about their little outing than before.

Erin looked down at Thea "so, what flavor of ice cream do you want to try today?" she asked in a slight teasing tone, a side affect of her rather good mood. She was actually surprised that everything was going well and that she hadn't been tracked down by Burgess, at the behest of Voight. She had been AWOL long enough as it was.

Thea twirled her hair chewing her lip as she thought about the flavor she would get, when Erin opened her mouth and whispered in her ear "Vanilla?"

Thea looked at Erin quite shocked at Erin's suggestion. Vanilla was her favorite, but how did she know that? "How?" she asked looking at Erin in awe. How did Erin know so much about her? Sure she might have just been guessing, but that spot on?

Erin winked at the girl "good guess. That and its my favorite flavor as well." she said as they made their way to the counter. She took out her wallet and handed the server a couple of dollars "two Vanilla milkshakes please!"

A few moments later the two were sitting in a both happily sipping on their milkshakes, vanilla with whip cream on them and chocolate syrup and sprinkles to boot.

Thea took anther sip, relishing in the creamy taste, before looking at Erin and asking "So, what's it like being a police officer in Chicago, Detective Lindsey?"

Erin stopped sipping on her drink, almost chocking from the sudden question, before quickly swallowing her drink and offering a smile to Thea "why are you asking me that?" she was just surprised. She was half expecting the girl to ask why she wasn't taking her home, not why Erin herself decided to become a cop.

Thea shrugged "well…" she bit her lip, twirling her hair again in nervousness "its just that I would have wanted to be a cop after I graduate from high school, but…" she trailed off, her eyes dropping to look at her lap, as well as clasping her hands together, trying not to get all emotional over what she was about to say.

But before she could, Erin reached over and grasped one of the girl's hands, gently squeezing it for support. Thea looked up, surprised by the move, and opened her mouth, but found herself bereft of any words.

She suddenly realized that despite the number of differences between them, Detective Lindsey looked quite a bit like her. Older, of course, but the similarities were there

"Hey" Erin said "its alright Thea," Erin said, "You can be-"

Before Erin could finish her sentence a shot rang out from behind her, shattering the glass to the Ice cream parlor, causing many of the patrons to scream and Erin to automatically jump from her seat grabbing Thea by the shoulders and pulling them both to the floor, as more shots rang out. Erin looked over her shoulder towards the window. The shooter appeared to be long gone, but that wasn't going to stop her from hunting them down for what just happened. She took a moment to assess the situation, then looked back at Thea, who seemed like she was about to have a heart attack, clutching her chest and hyperventilating.

"THEA!" Erin screamed unable to hide what probably sounded like motherly concern and fear in her voice. She quickly got to her knees and rolled Thea over on her back. She then lifted the girl up into a sitting position clutching her tightly "its ok… It's ok!" she whispered. Thea seemed to be calmed down by that, though she was still shaking "I… I… I'm ok." She whispered hoarsely "just startled"

Erin pulled away, still clutching Thea's shoulders. "Stay here. I have to go after who died this"

Thea nodded, before Erin stood up and ran out the door to the Chicago streets, taking her gun from its holster and glancing around. As she did, she saw a man in a jacket running down the block. "Chicago PD freeze!" she yelled, running after the supposed perpetrator she ran down the block hoping to catch him, all but forgetting about the idea of calling for back up.

She ran down the perp, until he turned into an alley, clearly hoping to outrun Erin. But Erin had more than stamina on her side. No, she had a desire to protect her daughter. This creep wasn't going to get away from her.

She turned down the alley, before stopping; holding her gun out in front of her, ready to shoot. She glanced around, not seeing him, then took a step forward, hoping to be able to find him before—

Erin suddenly felt something collide with the back of her head, knocking her to the ground and causing her gun to fall from her hand, skidding into the distance and out of her reach.

Erin groaned, disoriented by the surprise attack, but before she could get up, she felt a clammy and grab her by the hair and slam her face down, knocking her out for good

* * *

 **Im sorry, but I had too. One complaint I got was that there wasn't enough action in this story, so I had to set up for an action sequence. Will Erin survive long enough to see Thea again? Stay tuned**


	11. Chapter 11

**Ok, I am going to give you guys a fair warning here. this chapter does not paint Erin very well in terms of fighting prowess, but I did my best to not make her seem like a damsel. I'm not proud of it, but it was the best I could come up with with the** **scenario I created here. That being said, I want to thank you for your support. I honestly don't think this is even that good of a story. But everyone following this story is proving me wrong.**

* * *

When Erin awoke, the first thing she noticed was that the back of her head felt like it had been put through a wood chipper then pieced back together again. The second thing she noticed was that her body felt stiff and immobile in certain spots, namely her wrists and ankles. She shook her head lightly, wincing at the pain it brought her, hoping to rid herself of the disorientation, but it wasn't helping. Erin fought to open her eyes, but no matter what she tried, all she was able to see was darkness. As her senses returned to her, Erin realized why. Her eyes and mouth her covered preventing her from being able to see anything in the room she was in, nor be able to make a sound should she try and scream.

"Where am I?" she thought, trying to recollect her thoughts. The last thing she remembered was eating ice cream with Thea…

Thea! Oh my god! Was she ok? Everything came rushing back to her. They had been eating ice cream when a gunman shot out the store from the outside, before taking off on foot. Erin gave chase, but in the end was knocked out by her captors, bound and gagged in a chair and seemingly alone in a room. God only knew where she was right now.

To make matters worse, her radio and cell phone were probably gone as well, so that meant she was on her own for this one. She wasn't even going to bother asking the obvious question. Could it get any worse?

As if there was an answer to her question, Erin heard a door open, followed by the sound of footsteps, multiple of them it seemed entering the room, as well as a silent murmuring and a catcall. Erin shuddered, what made it worse was that she could hear some fairly derogatory terms coming from them as well. Oh joy.

She struggled against her bounds, wigging in an attempt to loosen them. Unfortunately, it didn't work and also caused laughter to be heard in the tiny room. Damn it, all she wanted was to be able to see who was looking at her. Or at the very least what type of hellhole she was placed in after being knocked unconscious by the idiot who thought shoot up an ice cream store for fun.

Before Erin could think of ways to tell her captors that they could go straight to hell before they could think of getting within another inch of her, she heard footsteps and all of a sudden, she felt a hand grab the blindfold around her face and her head was pulled violently as the fabric was ripped away from her face. her hazel eyes blazed angrily. She didn't know what she was expecting, but certainly not this. a rather good looking male was in front of her, looking almost like a business executive. He was older than her, maybe in his forties, but he had a rather charming feel to him. or he would have, if he wasn't leering at her so lasciviously. Jeez she asks for Bruce Wayne and ends up with an evil Hugh Heffner.

"He he" he chuckled in an accent that she couldn't quite identify, but it made her want to vomit, if she wasn't gagged at the moment. The man placed a hand on her cheek, gingerly running his fingers through her hair. Erin shivered from the man's touch, her features forming a scowl and she tried to inch her away as far as she could in her chair before meeting the mans eyes. "that's so hot mi amore" the man whispered lecherously. He moved to kiss her and Erin took the chance to head butt him right in the nose. A crack echoed through the room, followed by a gargled cry and a small spray of blood landed in Erin's face as the man through his head back, clutching his now broken nose. He then reared his hand back and struck Erin across the face, causing her and the chair to fall on the floor. Erin landed on the floor, her arm scraping against the rough jagged surface and searing pain shot up and down her arm as she adjusted to her new position. Pain radiated from her now flushed cheek, blood dripping from the wound. It seemed that the man managed to cut her cheek with that last smack. 'That's going to leave a bruise' Erin thought as she rotated her wrists, hoping to loosen herself out of the chair. Before she could a foot ending up in her rib, Erin yelped, tears leaking from her eyes. Her wrists hurt from her menstruations, but it was the only way she could try and free herself. The young woman worked through the pain, but another kick to her ribs made her freeze as she felt a crack echo in the room and all the air got sucked out of her lungs. 'That one punctured a lung' Erin thought.

She once again tried to move her wrists feeling one of her hands beginning to slip out when she felt a foot land on her oblique, causing her to scream and the gag flew from her mouth as Erin began to cough up blood.

However as she opened her eyes and recovered from that last blow, Erin noticed a gleam of silver coming from the man's foot. Her eyes widened. A knife If she could just get the knife…

Erin continued to rub her wrist, which continued to scream in protest, before…

"Yes!" she screamed, her unexpected yelp of joy causing her captor to halt his foot inches from her face. Just close enough for her to grab the knife.

With extreme precision, Erin snatched the knife from the man's leg and jammed it into his foot, eliciting a cry of agony. Erin yanked the knife from his foot, before using it to cut her bond at her other wrist, then one of her feet. Before she could get the last one, another painful kick to the ribs stopped her attempts and the knife fell from her hand. She then felt a foot stomp on her head, smashing it to the floor, causing Erin to scream in agony. Her vision went blurry, a sign that she was losing consciousness fast. But before darkness washed over her completely, she heard the door open with a loud bang before hearing the sound of a gun with a silencer went off and her attacker fell to the floor, limp and unmoving.

The last thing she saw before everything went black was the image of a silhouetted man entering the room and kneel down beside her, his hand resting on her wounded head, before saying "its going to be alright Erin. Just hang on!"

* * *

Beep… Beep… that was the first thing Erin heard as she regained consciousness for the first time in 24 hours. Or at least that is what Erin would have thought given she was floating in a black void ever since her run in with her would be rapist. The second thing she noticed was that if it felt like she had her head put through a wood chipper before, it felt like her body had been chomped on by sharks while having sunburns at the beach right now. Every time she so much as twitched she was in agony.

With difficulty, Erin opened her eyes, moaning as harsh light assaulted her eyes, causing her to groaned louder as a familiar figure rushed to her side. It was Natalie, one of Will's co-workers that she had the pleasure of meeting during her few escapades to the hospital. The young woman said a garble of words that seemed indecipherable to Erin at first, but when people began to enter the room and surround her bed, Erin realized what was happening.

Before long she spotted Dr. Rhodes, one of the doctors here at Gaffney Medical center

"Detective…" Dr. Rhodes asked looking down at Erin "Erin." Do you remember what happened?" he asked gently.

Erin moaned, her eyes fluttering. She could barely see, let alone speak right now, rather than respond, she tried to sit up, but Rhodes gently placed a hand on her shoulder and eased her back into the bed. "Easy!" he chided "you have a severe concussion, several broken ribs a punctured lung and lacerations on your right arm! You are in no condition to move right now."

Erin didn't care. She tried to get her arms to help, but as she did shoot pain shot through her and she gave an anguished cry, forcing her back onto the pillows. Time went by, but Erin didn't notice. She just closed her eyes, hoping that the pain would go away. Eventually, the voices around her vanished and she was alone in the room again.

Seemed liked she was going to be stuck here for a while, she supposed.

Meanwhile, Will calmly walked over to Jay, who had been waiting as patiently as he could, given that Erin was currently lying in a hospital bed. He had to be honest with the man though; despite being brothers, there was absolutely no way that he was going to be able to sugarcoat anything about this from Jay

As for the cop, Jay didn't know what to expect; Erin had put up a fight, that much was true, but that did little to soothe his fear for his girlfriend. Erin wasn't defenseless, but what hurt the most was that he was unable to help her now.

His face was in his hands, his mind moving miles a minute "I should have fought her. I shouldn't have let her go alone." He whispered. He had done what Erin had asked and stayed away, since unlike her drug problem before, she wasn't in any real trouble. Granted, she hid the fact that she was a mother from him, despite his thoughts that she wouldn't have hidden such a thing. But he digressed. He might have done the same thing if he was in her situation. That is if she told him in the first place what had happened!

 _Erin looked back at the unfamiliar girl, before placing a hand on her shoulder. "Thea… why don't you go with my coworker." She motioned for Ruzek to come forward. " Grab something to drink I will meet you later in an interview room." The young girl, now know as Thea, gave Erin a smile, before walking away with Ruzek_

 _A moment later she turned to Jay before stomping towards him, grabbing his arm and dragging away from the rest of the squad into an empty hallway. After a moment, she let go of his arm and turned to him "mention this to anyone… and I will castrate you with a pen!"_

 _Jay raised an eyebrow at the threat, but motioned for his girlfriend to continue. "that girl, Thea…" Erin blinked back tears before uttering her next words, so quietly that jay had to strain to hear the words "she's my daughter."_

 _Jay's eyes widened, but before he could ask, Erin's face became cold and she growled "I will not tell you, so don't ask me about her and don't you dare tell her. In fact, don't even talk to her!" Erin yelled angrily, before stomping towards the interview room, Jay close behind her._

"Jay," jay looked up to see Will looking at him with a rather solemn look on his face. Jay immediately stood up, going to his younger brother, his stance suggesting he would rather demand an answer from his brother, rather than ask.

Will took the hint and immediately nodded "she's awake." He told his brother.

Jay nodded and made his way towards Erin's room. When he entered the room and saw the woman he loved, his heart broke. Her head was wrapped in bandages; a brace was on her torso, a indication of her broken ribs. Gauze was covering her bloodstained arm.

Erin turned her head and saw her boyfriend. For the first time since meeting Thea, she was glad to see him. She smiled "Hey."

Despite his pain, Jay returned Erin's smile and made his way beside his partner sitting on the chair next to her bed. he gingerly placed a kiss on Erins cheek, before asking "Can you tell me what you remember?"

Erin's eyes narrowed, knowing exactly where Jay was heading with this situation. He wasn't one for small talk and after what happened "where is Thea?" she asked, more concerned for her daughter than she was for herself right now.

Jay's mood plummeted, but he swallowed his disappointment and gave Erin a soothing grin "she is safe. She is back with her legal guardians." Jay had been at the station house when he received the call about the ice cream shop, and it was there that he had found Thea. After keeping her safe and reuniting her with her legal guardians he had gone to search for Erin. She was lucky she hadn't been killed.

Erin sighed a breath of relief, before turning away from Jay. Thea was safe, that was what mattered. She wasn't happy though, that her time with her daughter was ruined.

Erin put those thoughts away for the moment, before turning to Jay and giving him a tender smile "Thanks for rescuing me." She whispered.

Jay looked at Erin confused "Erin… I just goy here a few minutes ago" at Erin's confused response, Jay continued "someone else brought you here.

Erin's eyes widened. If Jay wasn't the one who saved her… Who did?

* * *

 **The mystery just thickens doesn't it? I tried to put a Linstead moment at the end, but it wasn't much given Erin's current situation. there will be more moments, though far and in between, since this story will be about Erin and Thea. If anyone has any advice or thoughts, feel free to leave them here.**


	12. Chapter 12

**Ok, how long has it been since I updated this story? I know, too long, but we have finally reached a point into the story that I think you will find satisfying. I'm sure you can figure out whats going to happen next in the story after this chapter. Enjoy!**

* * *

The next few days were a blur for Erin. She spent all her time in the hospital, either watching television or having Jay come over everyday after work to have a quick cup of coffee with her in the visiting room, which always did wonders for Erin when she was trying to sleep. It didn't change much though. Erin barely got any sleep during her time in the hospital mainly due to the fact her mind kept replaying her encounter in her head. Unfortunately she could never come up with an answer to the question that plagued her each and every moment of her stay in the hospital.

To make matters worse, despite Jay's assurance that Thea was all right following the disaster at the ice cream parlor, the young girl never came to visit Erin. That hurt more than anything. Did Thea even care? Or was there something else going on? Erin prayed that it was the latter. She understood that Thea's life never revolved around her 24/7 but she would like some reassurance that she cared for Erin's wellbeing as much as Erin cared for hers.

Currently, Erin was sitting in a wheelchair (insisted upon by Dr. Manning to avoid the temptation of walking or running until her ribs were healed) bored out of her mind waiting for Jay to come pick her up to take her home. The whole thought frustrated Erin. A couple of broken ribs and Hank had forced her to sit at the desk for a few days after taking today off. Probably to keep an eye on her while she healed and didn't go running off. Come to think of it, Hank hadn't lectured her about her actions as of yet; probably would as soon as she saw him. That was the least of Erin's problems. Someone was going to here a mouthful from her as soon as she figured out who saved her and have a moment or two to see her daughter. Something told Erin that somehow there was more to the story, but she wasn't questioning it for now. Not that she could, for Jay's SUV rolled up in front of her while she was lost in her thoughts. Damn Jay and his impeccable timing (anyone notice the sarcasm?) for everything when it came to Erin and her life.

Erin sighed placing an elbow on the arm rest of her wheelchair, resting her chin on her palm as Jay opened his car door and hopped out of the car a smile on his face as he made his way towards Erin. Erin tried to smile as Jay leaned down and pecked her lips, but she found it very hard to make it stick.

Erin looked up at Jay as he pulled away, before he went around her and pushed her wheelchair to his car "happy to get out of this hospital?" Jay asked as he rolled Erin to the passenger side of the car and pulled her out of the chair bridal style, (eliciting a gasp of shock from the young detective as he placed her in the seat and buckled her in, making sure to steal another kiss as he did so.

Erin blushed and smacked her boyfriend's chest "Jay!" she yelped as her cheeks tinted pink. Public displays of affection weren't exactly uncommon for Erin, but she would rather not do it at the moment because she was certain someone would laugh at her behind her back for this later.

Jay chuckled before he went around the car and got back in the driver seat and drove off. Thankfully it was late afternoon, so Erin could have the rest of the day off. She had a feeling that Jay was going to pamper her for the rest of the day. Who was she to complain? At least he would be some good company during the night. Plus she could use that time to sneak away and find Thea, assuming that she wouldn't be asleep during the late hours. Lord knew that Erin certainly wasn't like that when she was that age, nor was Thea's father.

It was quite a silent ride on the way back to the shared apartment, but Erin and Jay made up for it by screaming long into the night.

Erin awoke while it was still dark, wrapped in Jay's arms. Thankfully, during there love making, Jay was gentle in order to accommodate her broken ribs. Aside from that, her legs were sore. Wonderful. so she was now going to get to her car, drive to Thea's house while trying not to fall flat on her face. a least that wld be a funny story to tell her daughter.

Erin moved away from Jay and swung her legs over the bed, grabbing her underwear and pulling them up her legs, nearly toppling over in the process. After securing her underwear she clipped on her bra, then pulled on the cloths that were on her chair intended for her day at the office later. She glanced at her bedside clock. 5:30. Thea should still be asleep, but hopefully, Erin could make a house visit before Thea left the house. As odd as that was.

As Erin tip toed to the door, she glanced behind her. Jay was still snoring away, undisturbed by his waking girlfriend. Thank god; Erin did not want to have to explain any of this to Jay.

She opened her bedroom door, and went in to her living room, grabbing the keys from the counter (Jay had thrown then there when they had walked or rather kissed their way into the bedroom) walked out of her door and gently closed the door behind her, locking it so Jay could sleep in peace.

Erin sighed as she made her way to the elevator, making her way to the ground floor and too her car. As she reached too open the door, she turned back to look at her apartment window, where Jay still resided "I'm sorry Jay." She said before she got into her car and drove off towards Thea's house.

* * *

Thea on the other hand, was sitting at her table in the kitchen, trying dreadfully to ignore the sound of her foster parent's chatter. Apparently a long time protégé of her foster father, someone Thea didn't even bother to get the name of (not that she would have cared if she did, it wasn't like she was going to know this person. She barely knew about her foster parents) was coming to visit as he was in town for maybe a few days. Thea didn't care, but she had no choice. She had been raised (a loose term considering her life) to be good so that people might adopt her, so maybe it wouldn't be all that bad. She just didn't want to be optimistic to early. Besides she was far too distracted to care at the moment.

It had been a week since her day with Erin and Thea was worried. The Detective that found her following the parlor incident had told her that Erin was fine at the hospital and while Thea asked which one Erin was staying at, and while Jay told her she was at Gaffey, he advised Thea not to visit her until she recovered. Other than that, there hadn't been any contact between them since. Thea could understand, but she wanted to make sure Erin was ok with her own eyes. That and her parents were taking her to see a psychologist for evaluation after school every day so if Thea wanted to visit her friend, which she did, she wasn't really able to leave her house without one of her parents around. Talk about having someone look after you all the time. Thea wouldn't mind having parents this diligent, but even she would like a little bit of freedom to go with it.

Oh well it couldn't be helped; it was the least of her worries as far as she was concerned. She finished her tea, not really hungry, and went to her bathroom upstairs, where she proceeded to brush her teeth diligently, and use mouthwash to ensure that she had the cleanest and freshest breath possible, before grabbing her backpack and heading to the door. as she was reaching for it the door knob however, a sudden peaceful knock made Thea jump, as she normally never received visitors at this time of day, nor was her step fathers friend supposed to be arriving until closer to dinner time, about twelve hours from now at the very least.

Trying to calm her heart beat (the doctor said it wouldn't be good to get too excited given her condition) Thea looked through the peephole of her front door. Her jaw dropped in shock and without even thinking opened the door and flung herself at the visitor, clutching her tightly "ERIN!" she screamed with joy, her shout reverberating throughout the entire neighborhood. Needless to say, the young girl was very happy to see her friend again.

Erin groaned, her ribs feeling like they were going to shatter under the weight and force of Theas hug. She clenched her teeth together as a pained gasp worked its way from her throat and he desperately tried to hold it in. ignoring the pain, Erin managed to wrap her arms around Thea and return the hug, tears leaking from her eyes at the joyful moment that only a mother could feel. Thea was hugging her. For the first time in her life, Erin truly felt like a beloved parent. She could only stand there stunned. It was perfect.

At least until she heard someone clear there throat, causing mother and daughter to look at the door way to see Thea's foster father and his wife staring at tem. Dwight had a stern look on his face while Brie, his wife was biting her lip t hide an amused smile.

Erin blushed, realizing what they might be thinking. She quickly let go of Thea and cleared her throat before extending her hand to greet her daughter's foster family. "Hello. You must be Thea's parents" she gave them a smile hoping not to look too suspiscious "I'm Erin Lindsey, the police officer that helped Thea a few weeks ago" she told them, hoping to stay on their good side.

Dwight just looked between Erin and Thea, before accepting the handshake "Dwight MacEisenhower." This is my wife, Brie" he gestured to the woman who looked fairly older than Erin, maybe in her mid to late forties. The older woman smiled before nodding "we have heard so much about you detective Lindsey."

Thea smiled sheepishly as her foster mother looked at her knowingly. Erin glanced at her daughter and had to stifle a giggle, before folding her arms in front of her and glancing at the MacEisenhowers "I just wanted to check up on Thea after…" she trailed off, knowing that she didn't need to continue that sentence.

Dwight nodded "Of course, but if you don't mind my daughter needs to get to school." He said coolly.

Erin flinched, noticing the way that Dwight said 'his' daughter. Regardless, she nodded before turning to Thea, digging her hands in her pocket. "want me to walk with you Thea?" she asked hopefully.

Thea nodded, before waving goodbye to her parents, "see ya!" she cried, before bounding towards her bus stop, Erin following her the entire way.

* * *

Erin looked at Thea who still had an immeasurable smile on her face, maintaining her rather perky attitude despite the early morning hours. No doubt it was because of Erin's surprise visit. Not that Erin could blame her, Erin was quite as happy to see her daughter as well. Erin just happened to be better at hiding it.

"soo." Erin started, gaining Thea's attention. "Anything going on at school today?" it was a rather routine question, but Erin really wanted to talk with Thea before she left.

Thea looked at her friend, before shrugging "Not really. I just can't wait for the holidays."

"Why is that? Erin asked. Thea shrugged "just because. I like school, but everybody likes to have a day off every once and a while you know."

Erin laughed. That reminded her so much of her father, who loved the holidays and would spend so much time with Erin during those days. Not that Erin wanted to bring him up; it was just crazy how much Thea reminded her of him and of Erin herself.

A pang of sadness reached Erins heart at the thought. She had missed so much of Thea's life and even though she had made up for it a little in the short time she was aware of Thea's arrival in Chicago, it still hurt to know that her baby had grown up without her and Erin didn't even know where to start if she wanted to tell Thea the truth. Which she did.

Before Erin could think to continue the conversation however, a bus rolled up on the nearby road, causing Thea to look at her, "Got to run," she mumbled, turning to look at Erin "why don't you come over for dinner tonight?

Erin smiled before nodding "I would like that" Dinner with Thea's parents sounded nice, especially if it meant that she could spend more time with her daughter. "Just let them know I am coming over ok?"

Thea nodded, grinning, before taking off to her bus "see you then! Bye Erin!"

Erin watched as Thea boarded her bus, before it drove down the street and off into the distance. "Good bye… my daughter." She whispered, before turning around and walking towards her car.

* * *

 **I am sure everyone knows whats going to happen next. Feel free to leave your thoughts.**


	13. Chapter 13

**Ok, Finally uploaded a chapter, and I want thank the one guest for their kind words, but I was serious when asking why you guys like this story so much. Why do you like it so much? Is it Linstead, Thea, the style of writing? I don't know, I'm just confused. It warms my heart that you like this story, but I'm still baffled as to why.**

 **On that note enjoy.**

* * *

By the time Erin got to work, se knew that both Jay and Hank were going to be pissed. Her phone was buzzing angrily with calls from jay; she had to turn off her radio to prevent Hank from screaming at her. She was certain that they were both worried by Erin's change in attitude after meeting Thea; Hank was belligerent to the point of denial and Jay was hurt that she was becoming emotionally attached to Thea without letting anyone else in to help her. In Hanks case, Thea should be left alone because he was afraid that the truth would put a strain on both mother and daughter. Voight didn't want to see the young woman he raised have a tense relationship with her daughter the same way Erin did with Bunny. Jay was jut worried that Erin could snap if things go wrong.

It was sweet but unnecessary. Erin knew what she was doing. Or so she thought. If anything, the dinner could give a chance for her to finally tell Thea the truth, though that could be because of the fact that Erin had just gone through the traumatic experience that she had. But maybe some mother daughter bonding would help her and Thea.

Erin raced through the office of the prescient trying a little to hard to not look like she was late to work, but as she thought, when she got to the Intelligence unit office, Hank and Jay were standing At her desk, the elder man looking quite annoyed and Jay looking at the ground mildly sheepish. Everyone else seemed to be standing around doing there work, but keeping an ear on for the upcoming screaming match Erin knew was coming.

Well, she knew that her luck was going to run out eventually, might as well try and get it over with now, Even though Erin was more than willing to turn right around and put one, or two, one for each man in this case, in the air and walk right out the door, but a quick bark of "sit" from Hank made her freeze on the spot as he pointed to her chair.

Erin clenched her hands tightly; Hank wasn't even bothering to hide his displeasure or keep anything a secret from the rest of the squad at this point. She could feel a cold sweat roll down her neck and it took everything to prevent herself from shaking. She had never seen hank this mad; he was really going to throw the book at her this time and for the first time in a long time, Erin actually felt afraid of her father figure.

Keeping her nerves in check, or at the very least, trying to keep a brave face on, Erin walked over to her desk and sat down, Hank and Jay on the other side.

Hank loomed over Erin, his eyes piercing as he opened his mouth "Erin, I have told you time and time again. To leave her alone and each and every time, you continue to disappoint me." Erin opened her mouth to retort, but Hank put up a hand signaling her to shut her mouth before he really blew a gasket. "Since I can not trust you to obey my orders" he began coldly "for one, you are on unpaid leave, and I have **a** ssigned Jay to be with you every moment of everyday, natures call not withstanding. That being said." he stopped a moment, letting her take a moment to let his orders sink. "If you continue to pursue this matter during your work hours or at all, I will have no choice but to have a detail and a GPS motion tracking device placed on you. Are we clear?" he growled. Erin blushed, entirely angry with Voight for treating her like a child, but he supposed she had this coming, so instead of arguing she shut her mouth and nodded, wisely deciding not to tell Jay or Hank that she planned to go to Thea's tonight.

After Voight walked away, Jay went over to the other side of Erin's desk and placed a hand on he shoulder "Erin, you want some breakfast?" he asked.

* * *

Later that morning, Erin found herself sitting at the café she normally had breakfast at, waiting for her mother to arrive and formally meet Jay, since the two hadn't had much of a chance to meet. Erin however was not excited about it, mostly because she had been drunk when suggested it and must have been clinically insane when she actually talked to her mother about it, but here they were just having breakfast because Erin was literally on probation and jay had to take her for breakfast to meet her mother. Wonderful

That being said, Jay looked as nervous as she was annoyed. She wanted him to try and get to know her mother, since there was the potential for an ever-growing relationship with Jay. Either way it had to be done.

Erin stopped playing with her food, looking a Jay "this is insane you already met her" she argued.

Jay looked at her putting the ketchup he had been using back on the table. "Yeah, -but now were dating- hold on, this was your idea!" he replied, sounding accusatory.

Erin glanced back at her food and rubbed her eyes, wishing that she was with Thea right now instead of having to be a mediator at a breakfast she no longer had anything to do with. "Yeah but I was drunk and this is really sentimental" an idea coming to mind "we don't have to do this" anything to sneak by Jay and et to Thea's for dinner, even if it was a few hours away and the young girl had gotten to school barely an hour ago.

Just as jay told her everything was going to be fine wouldn't you know it, Bunny came in ranting her head off and complaining about something, as per usual for her self. Erin started to wonder why she ever thought even while being drunk, she thought this was a good idea.

Bunny strolled up to the table throwing her bag on the table and started talking about what took her so long "sorry I'm late. There was zero parking on the street and when I went to the parking lot it was twenty dollars, twenty dollars to park."

"Mom!" Erin snapped, failing to keep the annoyance out of her tone "nobody wants to hear about parking problems ever" she told her mother in disgust. Great what a good way to start this breakfast, not even a minute in and Erin couldn't help but feel like her mother was ruining things already. She barely hard her mother and Jay exchange hellos before they sat down.

There was a tense moment, before Erin tried to start a light conversation "so… Jay and I are living together." she trailed off not sure where to continue, but like always, Jay had her back and put on his best smile "I've heard." He cleared his throat. "A lot of good things about you."

' _wanna lie more Jay?'_ Erin thought as she heard that.

Bunny stared blanking at Jay "no you haven't" she replied bluntly.

Jay at there, knowing that she was right, but couldn't find anything to say to that

"Ok!" Erin clapped her hands together "lets just make this short and sweet, even if we have to fake it!" she chirped, with a fake smile on her face. She needed this to be short and sweet, lest her hands fasten themselves around Bunny's throat.

Bunny leaned forward, her eyes focused on Erin "sweetie, I've been meaning to call you…" she looked at him , an innocent look on her face, but Erin knew better "Jay, could you give us a minute?"

Oh great what was it her mother wanted to talk about now? Her blood ran cold as Thea came to mind. No, Bunny never even knew that Erin had been pregnant, so it couldn't be that. Not that she was expecting something good to come out of this.

As Jay got up to leave, Erin grabbed his sleeve and tugged a little too hard, forcibly pulling him back in his seat "no!" she growled, narrowing her eyes at her mother "what is it? You can't just come and have breakfast with my boyfriend and be nice and leave it at that." She spat "what is it, you want to borrow money?"

Bunny flinched as if Erin had struck her then gritted her teeth as she growled, "I just wanna talk," she whispered but it was forced and hoarse, signaling that she wanted to talk with Erin alone

Like hell she was "then talk" Erin replied.

Buy before Bunny could respond, there was a sudden call on her radio. "10 1 10 1 22 22! Shots fired!"

Bunny tried again, but Erin was too focused on the radio as there was another shout of Officer down!"

Erin pushed Jay out of the booth, secretly grateful for the call to work "gotta go!" she cried as she and Jay raced out of the restaurant.

* * *

Later that night, Erin found herself next to Burgess, ho had just accepted a job, in intelligence, clinging on to her arm in congratulations, before walking over to hug Sena, who would be leaving intelligence to start a new job. She just wanted to have a quick drink with her friends before joining Thea for dinner.

She was shaking with excitement, trying to hide it, because she wanted to leave, but had to wait out listening to Sena's speech, before raising her glass. As she did so, her phone buzzed and she quickly checked it. She was hoping it was Thea, but instead found herself looking at her mother's number, with a text claiming it was an emergency.

Should she go see to it? The quick answer was she should because it was the right thing to do, but she knew better, and besides, she had something better to do. She pocketed her phone, ignoring her mother's plea, before placing her beer on the table and walking out the door, leaving a confused Jay behind. Sure Hank had told him that he was to follow her, but right now he was here trying to celebrate the moment. He might as well give Erin some space, especially when it involved her mother.

* * *

Not to long later, after going to her apartment and showering changing into a casual dress, blue with straps and made of silk, while having her hair all down, Erin arrived at the suburbs where Thea lived, ignoring the constant buzzing from her phone. She was going to have to turn the damn thing off at this rate, because her mother was going to have to realize that Erin was not going to indulge her mother's request right now. Instead she made her way to Thea's house, pulling up into the driveway. Erin sighed, clutching the sleeves of her jacket, which she was only wearing to avoid having men look at he lasciviously on the road, trying to ease the butterflies in her stomach. She was going to have dinner with her daughter. It was one of those things and now it was scaring her.

"Get it together, get it together." she chanted to herself, feeling the unease fade away a little. Smiling, she opened her car door and stepped out, feeling her heels click on the asphalt driveway, before getting out and locking her car and walked over to the front door. She gingerly knocked and waited. After a few moments, the door opened and she was greeted by the sight of her daughter, wearing a green dress similar to her own, but her hair was in a pony tail.

Erin almost gushed with pride, seeing her daughter as a beautiful young woman, but kept it together as she smiled fondly at Thea "Thea…" she breathed, before being hugged by the girl, who squealed with joy "you're here!" she cried, before suddenly backing off blushing at her overwhelming enthusiasm. "Sorry… would you like to come in?" she asked, stepping side to allow Erin entrance.

Erin giggled, before stepping inside, placing a hand on Thea's shoulder, "Thank you for inviting me" she said sincerely. She took off her jacket and placed it on a nearby coat rack, showing off her own dress, which Thea looked at in awe, before smiling "come on."

Thea looked down shyly, before leading Erin to the dining room where her foster parents were already sitting. Mr. Mcseishenhower was dressed in a sage buttoned suit with an American flagged themed tie, no doubt in honor of the men he served with in the army, while his wife was wearing a magenta dress. They both stood up as Erin entered the room, going over to the young woman. "Ms. Lindsay!" Brie hollered, going over to the young woman and hugging her lightly "The has told us so much about you. Erin smiled, trying and failing not to blush. " It's been a pleasure knowing Thea. She muttered, before turning to Thea's foster father, whom was looking at her wearily, but had a smile on his face as he extended his hand "charmed I'm sure. Its nice to meet you formally" he told her, his voice gruff.

Despite the cold reception, Erin smiled "the honor is mine, sir" she chirped back, before glancing at the dinner table, which had an assortment of food on it "this looks delicious." She told them, before noticing that there were five plates on the table, not four as she was expecting. She looked at her hosts "is there someone else coming?" she asked, hoping that she wasn't overstepping her boundaries.

To her surprise, Dwight smiled as he nodded "affirmative" he barked, pride in his voice "my old protégé is in town and he decided to join us for dinner as well, I guess Thea forgot to tell you. That." he said looking down at his foster daughter with mischief in his eyes.

Thea blushed before looking at Erin "I thought you guys might want to…" she trailed off, her blush darkening.

Erin laughed, before brushing Thea's hair "that's sweet, Thea but I already have a boyfriend. She noticed that Thea pouted for a second, before, she smiled again "come on!" she yelped "lets-" before she could continue, there was the sound of a knock on the door, causing everyone to look at the door "that must be him" Thea muttered, before looking at Erin

Erin smiled "why don't you guys sit down. I'll get the door." she looked at Thea "who knows, maybe we hit it off" she teased with a wink.

Brie nodded before ushering her family to the table, as Erin returned to the foyer, going to the front door. without even bothering to look directly at who was on the other side. She opened the door with a smile on her face, ready to greet the other guest her hosts had invited.

In that moment, her heart stopped dead.

* * *

 **Oh come on, don't be sad, you should now by now I like keeping people in suspense. As always leave your thoughts and please answer my question. Till then.**


	14. Chapter 14

**Not my best chapter, but I like the direction and I hope you do too. Anybody want to take a guess as to who was at the door. Well you'll find out anyway. I want to thank you all for bing patient, but I am pretty sure 99.99 percent of you will be after my blood by the end of this chapter, so I beg of you, find it in your hearts not not murder me after reading this chapter.**

 **All new character is portrayed by Garret Hedlund.**

* * *

"Erin" Alex breathed as he gazed into the eyes of his ex girlfriend. He was utterly surprised to see Erin answering the door to his old commanders house; he had been invited because his old friend was thinking of adopting this girl he had in his care for the past few weeks and thought it would be beneficial to start adapting to the people that would or could be in her life. Alex laughed at this, not because he felt it was ridiculous, but it surprised him that his tough intimidating commander in the army could be such a sweetheart.

That didn't explain this though "Erin?" he called again, his voice little more than a hoarse whisper.

Erin didn't answer. She was too busy shivering where she stood, her emotions bottling themselves up in one large bottle of fury and disbelief. Her throat went dry and a red haze began to fill her mind, her face scrunching up in horror as she gazed into the eyes of the last person she wanted to see.

Alex Nolan. Her ex boyfriend.

His bright blue eyes pierced her soul as the two stared at one another frozen in time. It had been years since they had seen one another and now that they were, it was like time had stopped everywhere as they were too distracted by one another to be able too even remember that they were supposed to be going t the dining room for dinner

Erin's arm fell to her side as she drank in Alex's appearance. He was older obviously, but his hair was more or less the same dirty blonde she remembered, but it as shorter than the last time she saw him. He also looked healthier; his skin wasn't sunken in and dull like when they had done heroin together. he seemed sharper, more focused.

And god forbid, he looked buffer and stronger, not to mention taller! Still more than her to be sure, but my god. Erin never thought that any ex boyfriend would make her heart flutter the way Alex was threating to do right now.

He was wearing a dark grey suit with black shoes and a purple tie. Even they why-Erin stop ogling the guy and get angry with him! you are a smart attractive epically pissed off women right now! oh and pissed off she was, but before Erin could pounce like a lioness and probably murder Alex, Dwight appeared from the dining room, a warm smile reaching his features as he caught sight of Alex. "Alex my boy!"

Erin spun on her heels, hoping that her body language or face betrayed her as she tried to hide her rage, before walking towards Dwight and into the dining room, leaving a shocked Alex behind.

Being the trained soldier that he was though, Dwight did not miss the tense air that Erin was giving as she walked, the quick stomping of her feet and the quick tone of breathing. He quickly glanced at her, before looking back at Alex, who shrugged, before walking in to the foyer, closing the door behind him "nice to see you too old man, he muttered, before walking past him, still in shock at seeing Erin again.

* * *

Erin walked in the dining room, her eyes immediately landing on her daughter. Althea was sitting down at the table, waving enthusiastically for Erin to sit at the table with an empty chair beside her and across from her, one of the no doubt for Erin herself, but Erin was less than thrilled to have Alex across from her for the next few hours even with the delicious looking chicken and beef dish that her daughters foster mother had cooked. With alight sigh, she gave Thea a smile before walking to the table and sat down beside her "looks delicious, she told Thea, who giggled "are you referring to the Dinner, or the man" she whispered, wiggling her eyebrows up and down.

Erin blushed, more out of mortification and horror due to flattery as a memory sprang to mind.

 _The bedroom door sprang open as Alex and Erin wearing nothing but thee underwear, all but sprinted into the bedroom. Or to be more accurate, Alex walked into the bedroom carrying Erin, with Erin having her arms and legs wrapped around Alex's waist as the two kissed passionately with enough heat to burn the room down._

 _Alex grinned as he parted from Erin's lips,, latching his lips onto her neck as Erin threw her head back an moaned as Alex placed her onto the bed, climbing on top of her._

Despite her anger, Erin couldn't deny that the memory made her hot and bothered. What made it awkward that Erin was remembering the night Thea was conceived and Thea was indirectly asking whether or not Erin would like to jump her father!

Erin bit her lip and shrugged noncommittingly, not wanting to further this discussion.

Before Thea could respond, Alex and Dwight walked into the room and sat down at the table, neither Erin nor Alex able to look at one another. Naturally even Thea could see the tension between the two adults in the room.

* * *

Despite the tension in the room, dinner managed to off with out much of a hitch, and by that I mean that Erin and Alex couldn't look at one another in the eye and never said a word to one another during the entire meal, either directing there conversation at Thea or her parents, but whenever Thea asked Erin or Alex indirect questions about the other, both individuals just smiled and replied as vaguely as possible. Given that they could see that something was wrong, but didn't want to cause any trouble for Thea's sake, Dwight and Brie wisely kept quiet an didn't press the matter any more than they needed to. They kept a wary eye on Thea though, because from the start of the dinner to the end of the dinner, it was clear that her happiness went from full-blown joy to wavered concern by the end of the meal.

At some point, desert had moved to the family so that the party could feel a little more comfortable and not be some cramped in the dining room. Erin and Thea sat on one couch eating cake, while the McEishenhowers sat on another couch, just watching there guests. Alex took to a small chair in the corner, a drink on the table beside him. Despite the openness of the room and the more comfortable feeling, there was still an air of unease on Erin and Alex's part and nothing that anybody said made it better.

Needless to say, Thea did not possess the maturity to be able to take a bad situation and be able to make it better.

And made it better she did not.

Thea turned to Erin, who was taking small bites of her cake and asked awkwardly "Erin would you like to go shopping?"

Erin was taken by such surprise at the question, that she sucked the fork in her mouth, causing her to gag on the piece of cake and the silverware she was using to eat it.

Erin hands threw to her throat and she wheeze, unable to gather any sort of breath or dislodge the fork and she tumbled out of her chair and onto the carpeted floor.

"Erin!" Thea cried, jumping out of her seat and falling to her knees beside Erin.

She vaguely heard her parents gasp but her eyes were focused on her friend, who's eyes were wide panicked and glossy from the lack of oxygen reaching her brain. All she could do was thrash around on the floor and look Thea in the eye, praying death would come soon.

Alas, even that was not to be, because Alex jumped out of his seat and ran across he room to Erins side, pushing Thea aside, who tumbled onto her but. She shot a glare at the man, before returning her eyes to Erin, all the while reaching into her dress and grabbing her necklace praying for a miracle.

Alex in the meantime placed his hand on Erins chest and pushed down hard, causing Erin to gasp and sit up the fork flying out of her mouth and across the room, clattering to the floor.

Erin grabbed her chest and wheezed, drawing the much needed air back into her lungs before looking at Alex, her eyes wide in awe, but before she could even thank her ex, she was brought into a hug by an ecstatic Thea ""Erin!" she screeched, tears streaming down her face. Erin responded quickly, hugging her daughter, before releasing her and for the first time that night, smiled "its ok Thea. Its ok." She whispered, before looking at Alex "th-" she began, but before she could thank him, Thea turned to him, hugging him to "you saved her!" Thea cried, before letting go of the older man and standing up.

Alex smiled as he stood up and grabbed Erins hand to pulled her to fee "it was nothing Thea I-" he stopped as he glanced down at the girl, his eyes widening as they landed on the locket that hung around Thea's neck. The same locket that he had given to Erin 16 years ago. he glanced to Erin, before looking at Thea "where did you get that?" he asked before looking at Dwight and Brie "where did she get that?!" he yelled causing everyone to flinch.

Dwight looked at Alex and Thea, before sayng "it is a belonging of hers, says it was given to her as a baby" he croaked, unable to comprehend what was happening.

Erin pulled her hand away from Alex and grabbed Thea intending to get Thea out of the room. "Ignore him, don't answer that" she hissed in Thea's ear as she began to lead her out of the room

"Thea, where did you get that?!" Alex roared, desperation in his voice.

Thea, angry by all the yelling and annoyed at Erin treating her like a child, pulled out of her arms and turned "Its my mothers!" she yelled angrily "now why is everyone yelling!" she screamed desperate to know what was going on

Alex looked at Erin, who had suddenly gone very pale as she met Alex's gaze "her mothers?" he bit his lip and looked at Erin, betrayal and anger in his eyes "is this my daughter?" He breathed, his voice barely above a whisper.

Thea's jaw dropped at the question and she looked between Erin and Alex, understanding crossing her eyes and she looked at Erin in horror. "Is this… our daughter?" Alex asked again.

Erin felt tears going down her face and she looked at Alex, before she looked at the heartbroken face of her daughter, not even noticing Dwight and Brie, both of whom were staring the trio in shock.

Erin walked up to Thea a sad smile on her face as she took Theas's face in her hands, gently caressing the girl's cheeks and looking into the eyes that had haunted her for the past few weeks. There was hope in Thea's eyes but it wasn't hope that Erin was going to say yes. It was a light of denial, a desperate hope that it wasn't true.

Erins smile faded slightly as her face fell into a plea for forgiveness "Yes." She whispered, more to Thea than Alex.

Thea's face felt and she abruptly pulled away from Erin, looking at her newfound mother, before she reached up and grabbed the necklace that hung around her neck, and ripped it off breaking the clasp that held it in place and throwing t to the floor. Thea then bolted from the room, sobs being heard as she made her way up the stairs before the adults heard a door open and slam shut.

Erin stood there, her eyes gazing at her feet; tears of her own leaking down her face. But before she could move, she felt a hand grab her shoulder. She looked up to see Alex staring at her. And just like that she snapped, raising her hand and with an anguished roar, slapped Alex across the cheek, before running out of the room and out the front door, slamming the door shut.

* * *

Erin ran to her car, desperate to get her keys out of her jacket so that she could flee into the safety and comfort of a hotel (she would go to her apartment, but Jay as likely there waiting for her by now and she could not explain to I'm what had happened.) but as she neared her car, she tripped, falling to the ground and onto the asphalt driveway. Despite herself, Erin curled onto the ground, tears falling an mixing in with the ground. "No… "No!" She screamed Thea wasn't supposed to find out this way! She was never supposed to. Erin began beating the ground with her fist, loosing control of her emotions.

It could have been minutes or hours, an Erin couldn't have been able to tell. She was so distraught that she cried herself to sleep on the cold ground, exhaustion and regret taking her into the blissful hold of sleep where she sat.

* * *

When Erin awoke, she immediately noticed something was wrong. Instead of the cotton sheets and foam mattress, she felt leather and scratchy fabric. Second, she didn't feel Jays warm embrace, making her feel colder, if that was possible.

Her eyes snapped open ad she was greeted by a very unfamiliar sight of an apartment that she didn't think she ever find herself in, but here she was. It was an apartment that screamed "army" since that's where Alex had been for the last few years, or so Erin had thought. But that didn't answer the question that was plaguing her mind. Why was she here?

Erin sat up, letting the blanket fall and expose her body, still clad in her dress. She swung her feet over the couch and stood up, looking around" Alex?" she cried. Hearing nothing, she moved to search the apartment, her instincts on high alert. She made her way to a door and opened it, revealing a bedroom, with the moon light exposing the bed, as well as another door that had light streaming in from the other side. Erin quickly walked over to the door and opened it, revealing a bathroom, and by the looks of it, there was a sliding door with a shower in it.

Erin looked down at herself, feel quite dirty from her experience's earlier and decided to take a shower. If Alex wasn't here, surely he wouldn't mind. Plus Erin did not want to go back to Jay looking like this. There were pair of cloths on the cabinet, definitely something Erin could fit in. Erin got into the room and closed the door behind her. she then peeled off her dress and underwear, before turning on the shower and adjusting the temperature to a comfortable warms, before stepping in.

Erin sighed in content as the water hit her. She felt herself being cleansed of her worries, in more ways then when. She just stood there lost in her own little world, until she heard the door open and onto the room walked a topless Alex, who was shocked to she a nude Erin in his bathroom "Erin?" he called knocking on the shower door.

Erin turned to his voice and opened the door to the shower, where she saw Alex holding onto a towel wrapped around his waist, hiding his nakedness from Erin, who id nothing to hide her body; it wasn't anything Alex hadn't seen before.

Erin looked at her ex, "Alex…" she whispered, before stepping side and giving Alex room to join in the shower. "Please, come in." she whispered seductively.

Alex stood there shocked "Erin, I don't think—" Erin cut him off "Alex, please… he whispered, begging him to join her.

Alex sighed, knowing that Erin wouldn't take no for an answer. He dropped the towel and got into the shower, standing before her, both of them getting drenched by the warm water.

Alex stared down at her a confused look in his eye "Erin we-" but once again, Erin didn't let him finish his sentence she wrapped her arms around him and smashed her lips into his.

By the time they finished, the hot water was running cold.

* * *

 **So before you get mad, remember, I said to find it in your hearts to not want to kill me, so please don't (holds up a picture of a baby puppy amid a mob of thousands of evil glare's) gulp. uhhh I think I'm going to get the car started (backs away very slowly, before turning and running towards New York) Olivia help Me!**


	15. Chapter 15

**To be honest I'm surprised by the lack of hate mail towards the end of the last chapter. In case there are a few people still confused by what had happened or why it has happened the** **way it did, let me explain.**

 **Erin had reunited with a man who had fathered the only child Erin ever had, whom she was forced to let go of to give her a chance at a better life, which she never got. Add that to the fact she was forced to tell Thea of their relationship in the quickest, probably most hurtful way possible, with Thea's father all in the room, Erin had offered an emotional break, and her first response was to do something that made her feel good. If I wanted Erin and Alex to be intimate once, I would rather not have it done in a way where Erin comes across as a (insert proper word here) or by having a fight with Jay and running into another man arms for comfort. Thats why it happened the way it did.**

 **But enough of that for now , I'll talk more after you read the chapter.**

* * *

The next morning, Erin was awoken by the sound of her clock buzzing angrily on the floor. Wait a minute, her phone never buzzed in the morning, let alone as angrily as that. She kept her phone on silent during the night and her natural clock tended to get her up early anyway, which begged the question. Where in the world was she and what time was it? Erin sighed and snuggled closer to the warm body that lay next to hers, memories of the previous night resurfacing in her mind as Alex and her made love for the first time in-

Erin's eyes snapped open as she realized what she had just told herself and she was treated to the sight of Alex's torso, her body laying on top of his like she did when they first had sex, her limbs wrapped lightly around his body, cuddling him like a warm blanket.

Erin's face flushed from embarrassment and anger as she realized what she had just done. She had been such an emotional wreck the previous night that she had seduced Alex into leaping with her just so he could forget the pain of traumatizing and possibly losing their- no her daughter forever.

And woe and behold, Alex was asleep under here, no doubt as tired as she felt from the event of last night.

With an undignified shriek, Erin pushed herself away from Alex. Unfortunately, she managed to tangle herself in the sheets and yelped as she fell to the floor. Naturally this caused a loud crash that made Alex sit up in bed,

A surprised gasp escaping his lips as he awoke, only to freeze as he saw a disheveled Erin rise up from the floor, wrapped in only the bed spread to keep her modesty in check; not that he would have minded otherwise.

As with any guy who just awoke to the sight of a disheveled angry ex girlfriend ho just realized she had a night of passion with you only to fall out of the bed, Alex bean laughing. He clutched his stomach and doubled over wheezing until he fell back on the comforter, and turned over to hide his snickers.

Erin, on her part dropped the bed sheet, before scurrying over to the bathroom and collecting her underwear, before grabbing the cloths she had intended to steal and throwing them on, then going back to the room, where she found Alex digging through a drawer, likely for close.

Erin blushed as he caught sight of him, before turning around. After a minute or two, she felt Alex wrap his hands around her and kissed her neck. "Morning Erin" he whispered smoothly, before nibbling on her ear.

Erin smiled, enjoying Alex's tender touch… before she elbowed him in the ribs, turned around and kicked him right in the grenades.

Alex yelped and stumbled back, but was able to keep standing, though he bit his lip in an attempt to not cry out in pain more. The young man stood there gathering his breath until he straightened up giving Erin an un amused glare "Well I can see you haven't changed much." He muttered Erin pointed a finger at her old lover, her eye bulging in anger and gritting her teeth with so much rage that it wouldn't have surprised anyone if her teeth shattered as a result of the force she was putting on them. "This…." Erin spat "this shouldn't have happened." her entire arm was shaking with rage and tears were threatening to spill from her eyes as she thought of Thea and what she was feeling as well as what Jay would think of her if she told him that she had just cheated on him

Alex folded his arms "Are you mad at me because of our daughter, or because you just cheated on your boyfriend?" he deadpanned emotionlessly.

Erin stepped back as if Alex had physically struck her. She was expecting him to make some smartass comeback; lord only knew how many times he had done tat when they were teenagers, but instead he just got straight to the point. Clearly the years had changed him and he was actually mature for once. Then again, the discipline of being in the military probably caused it to happen assuming that's indeed what he had done.

 _Erin smiled as she clung onto Alex's arm, satisfied by the post coital glow of their amazing first time. She turned to him, kissing his cheek. "I love you Alex" he whispered truthfully. Alex turned to his girlfriend, before claiming her lips in a tender kiss. "I love you too Erin." His head then fell back and he stared at the ceiling, furrowing his eyebrows in thought. Erin noted this and turned over placing a hand on his chest "What's wrong?" she whispered, her voice cracking._

 _Alex sat up, turning over to his bedside desk, opening a drawer "I got this for you." he told her, turning back to Erin. Erin looked down at his hand. In it was a heart shaped pendant, ne that could store a picture in it. It was very beautiful. Her eyes shining, Erin gently took the pendant and opened it reveal a picture slot as well as a message inside 'blood bounds us together' Erin looked at him, knowing what that meant._

 _Several months ago, just before being arrested and picked up by Hank Voight, Alex had been involved in an accident, and Erin, being worried rushed to the hospital where she found her boyfriend in critical condition. He managed to be able to get herself used in a blood transfusion, given him the blood that would stabilize him. The only downside was that he was in a coma for the next two weeks, causing Erin to go on a heroin binge during that time._

 _Cue Hank Voight._

 _Erin glanced at Alex for a moment, before throwing herself at him, hugging him tightly "I love it." she told him before she took the pendant and turned around, trying to put it on, herself Alex laughed, grabbing the chain "here let me. He told her, before clasping the seal. Erin turned around, the necklace adorning her collarbone. "Thank you Alex" she told him before. Kissing him again. To her surprise Alex pulled out of the kiss, biting his lip "what?" Erin asked Alex looked down at the bed sheets, before looking at Erin again "My parents drafted me into military school. They want me to go into the army."_

 _Erin's eyes widened "What… but you. You" Erin tried to say that he couldn't leave her like this, but she couldn't, her voice was trembling too much_

 _Alex sighed again "I'm sorry, but I'm leaving soon." Erin ignored him throwing the covers off of the bed and getting dressed "well then" she growled coldly, before going to the door. She opened it, turning back to Alex one last time "I'm done with you" she growled, before leaving the room, slamming the door shut._

 _It wasn't until Erin was out of the house did she realize that she still had the necklace around her neck._

Erin shook her head "it doesn't concern you, Alex, what makes you think that you can just waltz in here and."

Alex's face twisted into a snarl, cutting Erin off "why didn't you tell me that you were pregnant? You had plenty of time to do so while I was in the army!" he yelled "now I find out you've been playing mommy all these years while being a single mother to our daughter all these years while being a police officer. Don't you know how dangerous that is? What if I hadn't been able to get to you in time that night? Our daughter would have been an orphan thanks to you!"

Erin snapped, throwing her hands in the air "I gave her up years ago Alex!" she screamed, causing Alex to look at her with a look of shock on his face. "I gave her up because I was a recovering addict, like you were and I couldn't provide for her. I don't know how she ended up here in Chicago, but now I am—wait a second…" she stopped, her eyes narrowing at Alex "what do you mean hadn't gotten to me that…." she trailed off as she recalled the voice of the man that had saved her… "That was you?!" she roared, anger pumping her with even more hatred towards her old lover

Ale shook his head gritting his teeth in frustration " you found yourself in a covert CIA operation. That is all I can tell you. And what do you mean gave her up years ago?! I saw the necklace!" he yelled.

Erin opened her mouth to argue but at that moment, her phone rang, more specifically, Jay's ringtone. Oh god. The color rushed out of Erin's face and she turned around, stumbling to the floor as she made a dive for her phone grabbing it just before the phone automatically went to voice mail "Hello!" she screamed, unable to stop her voice from jumping in decibels as well as a few octaves higher than she would normally speak in.

Wow nice going Erin. When did she miss the 'not sounding suspicious 101' class? Oh right, when she was screaming Alex's name last night instead of going home to met with Jay. Is first thought? That she was going on a drug binge at any joint she could find late in the night, not to mention the fact that both she and Jay were going to hear it from Voight once, not if, he found out about this.

"Erin, where are you? When you didn't come home last night, I had Burgess and Olinsky sit out at Thea's house all night. Why are you still there? You had better get here quick, Voight wants to se you for breakfast."

Erin blinked; why on earth did Voight want to meet her and Jay for breakfast?

Apparently however, Erin had said that aloud because after a moment Jay responded again to what she was thinking, "no Erin, he wants to meet you; or more accurately, you mother wants to see you. She barged into intelligence looking for you saying that she was looking for you after you never got back to her last night. She wants to talk to her about something."

Erin bit her lip "Tell Hank I'll be there." She responded to her boyfriend, before saying a quick I love you, then hanging up. She stood back on her feet then turned back to Ale who was leaning casually against the wll his arms folded "Duty calls?" he asked

Erin shook her head, trying her best not to lose her temper "Alex… we don't have time to discuss EVERYTHING that happened between us. Thea," she stopped. Saying Thea's name pained her too much right now "Last night. All of it."" she told him "But We… I can't do this again" she gestured between them "It won't work"

"I'm not asking it too." Alex retorted "I know I lost you years ago" he continued "all I want is the truth." He sighed, biting his lip "and for us to be there for Thea, now that we are here. That she is with us."

Erin's heart fluttered at the brutal honest in Alex's voice and her face flushed. Alex wanted Thea. Oh for the many months that she had refused to tell him… he wanted a family with her. And they did. In Thea…. Their Daughter. Whatever that meant.

But even if the two were ale to tolerate one another, Thea would be another story entirely. Her parents had cone to her at the worst time in her life, and finding out that one of them was masquerading only as a friend made it worse.

Erin sighed, before going to Alex and taking his hands "Alex… I will never regret anything that happened between us, especially not Thea. But we can't deal with it now. Especially since I have to talk to my boyfriend."

Hearing this, Alex winced, and a feeling of guilt passed through Erin "he knows… about Thea. I mean" Erin told him "But as much as I love you, I… I love him more." Erin said, her heart sinking as she told Alex this. And right now, Thea needs us as Parents, not friends with benefits" Erin said as delicately as possible.

Alex smiled through the pain nodding "I understand" he wasn't going to get into a petty fight with Erin's boyfriend over her. If they truly loved each other, and if he loved Erin, it was her choice to follow her heart, not his. And she was right. He and Erin needed to talk to their daughter as parents and fight through that barrier without fighting each other.

Alex then smiled and quietly asked Erin "Did you ever stop loving me?" He asked.

Erin shivered. It was the same question he had said her before she left and he had told him yes. But she has been lying when she told him that.

"No." Erin responded truthfully, before kissing him chastely on his lips "now and always" she whispered breathlessly, before she let go of his hands and without another word, left the room.

Erin grabbed her jacket and put on her shoes, tears streaming down her cheeks. A moments away from breaking down and running back into Alex's arms Erin all but ran out the front door, quiet sobs leaving her, willing herself to get as far away from Alex as she could before she broke completely.

Meanwhile, inside the apartment Alex stared at the closed bedroom door, before slumping to the floor and buried his face in his hands, quietly sobbing as he thought about Erin.

Beside his bed, in the desk, was Thea's necklace, the clasp repaired. Inside of it was picture of a young Erin and a newborn Thea as well as three little words that meant much more to Alex now than they did 15 years ago.

Bound by blood

* * *

 **Ok, let me be clear. This will not turn into a Jay/Erin/Alex love triangle fic, where Jay and Alex fight over Erin. For one, they are all mature adults. Two, I've gone down the road before in another fanfic and don't want to repeat it beat for beat. Third, this fic will focus on Erin's and Alex's relationship with each other, in regards to Thea, as well as their relationship with Thea herself. If there is going to be a romance between them, its going to be out of reconnecting to one another while trying to reconnect to Thea, not due to sexual tension or out of a childish love triangle fight with Jay.** **So there will be moments of Linstead and Erin/OC, as well as a rivalry between Alex and Jay, but it won't devolve into a display for a mate. That does not mean however that Erin will end up with either of them by the end of the story. I want to do whats best for the characters as I see fit, not blindly pair Erin up with somebody because I want to.**

 **(Before you read more, know there are spellers for the season)**

 **On a more canon note, due to the current season dealing with Erin discovering her father (who may or may not be Hank as of the 11th episode of the season) I will being tying in the episodes that fill in this gap since it goes well with the idea of the fic, as you saw in the last chapter. I will not however be copying the whole episode word for word, only the scenes that matter. If you wanted to watch the episode, you'd watch the episode, not read a novelization of said episode. So updates may go slow until thats finished. I will try and write the fic in its own direction, but, if Hank is Erin's father, I want to be able to write that moment into the fic and not jump the gun, because it would be a beautiful way to end the story as a whole with Erin reuniting with her whole family** **.**

 **Yeah I know, unoriginal and cheesy, probably ruin the point of trying to be original, but it would just be a good way to go, if all that turns out to be true. Otherwise, well see.**


	16. Chapter 16

**I'm going to call this chapter the calm before the storm, because, Its mostly a chapter about flash backing to the few episodes that have aired recently, but putting on a little twist to fit into my story. Feel free to enjoy it, but no it won't be as original. Also, please keep an open mind about my OC's because they will be a part of this story, Linstead moments or not.**

* * *

Thank god it was a weekend because Thea thought that she wouldn't be able to last much longer. Following the shock to find out that the woman who saved her life was also her mother and her father was her foster parents protégé from his days in the military, Thea had fallen in a state of depression and was barely able to concentrate in school.

So the fact that it was a weekend was a blessing because it gave her plenty of time to sulk without any responsibilities getting in the way. Currently, Thea was lying facedown on her bed, crying uncontrollably. It had been some time since Thea met her … Parents (that word still left a bad taste in her mouth.) and still she couldn't stop herself from feeling betrayed and abandoned. She thought that Erin was her friend. How could she keep this from her? Scratch that, how could Erin have abandoned her when she needed her most? As much as she hated to think about it, Thea was Erin's own flesh and blood. Shouldn't that have been enough for Erin to keep her and raise her on her own?

True, Thea was being harsh and did not know the circumstances of why Erin had given her up, but she was too angry to care. All she could do was be angry at Erin and Alex for abandoning her. She didn't know who to be mad at more. Judging by the behavior she had seen that night, Alex had no idea that Thea even existed, meaning Erin hadn't told him about her. So what was Erin's excuse for leaving her? why not give her to her grandparents to raise or a family friend?

Can you tell that Thea felt like nothing?

Even worse, Thea had thought about contacting Erin to try and make up, but she just hadn't found a way to do that without getting angry, not to mention that she was scared to. What was she supposed to say to her? it wasn't like Thea couldn't forgive her, but she hadn't reached that point yet. How do you just forgive your mother for abandoning you, even if you could understand the reason why she did it?

How could she have not seen it before? Now it seemed all to clear to Thea. Her hair was of a similar shade to detective Lindsey's, as was there build and skin color.

Then there was Alex, her father. The similarities there were a bit more subdued in comparison. She hadn't spent much time with him, but she could see the similarities between them as well. The shapes of their faces were similar and their eyes were identical to one another.

How had her parents have made her, yet felt no love for one another, let alone her? it just boggled her mind. How… how old were they when Thea was born? Her mother looked like she was in her late twenties at the least; Alex couldn't have been much older than that. Add that to the fact that Thea herself was only 15, which meant…. Thea's heart dropped as she realized the weight of the conclusion she came to. She had been the product of a teenage pregnancy.

Thea's stomach churned. She was never supposed to exist. She was made from two idiotic people who were dumb enough not to use protection. More tears went down Thea's cheeks, shame and disgust tearing their way through her. She couldn't believe it! Her entire existence was a whole freaking mistake.

With a roar, Thea grabbed a pillow and threw it across the room, not caring if she hit something. All she cared about was pretending her problems didn't exist.

Thea lifted her head and wiped her eyes, rolling over on her back to stare at the ceiling. What was she going to do? Her hand went to where her necklace once sat. She had thrown it away and didn't know what had happened to it. One of her … parents must have taken it, because her foster parents didn't have it.

What was she going to do?

Several days later, Erin found herself in the very uncomfortable position of finally meeting with Jimmy Sanguinetti, her biological father. It was going to be quit a nuisance, because she did not know what to expect, nor was she happy about it. in fact, the past few days had been horrible. In between her cases, or even during it, Erin had found some way to be annoyed, either because Jay was Jealous, or she had to speak to someone about her current predicament.

She hadn't seen Thea or Alex since that night (or morning, in Alex's case, she wasn't sure where he was at the moment.) but right now, she had more important things to do while waiting for her father. Like reminiscing about the past few days.

Lets begin shall we?

* * *

Erin sat in her police uniform at a cafe, a mug of hot chocolate between her hands, as she waited for bunny to show up. Of course, Erin really wouldn't be putting up with crap like this from bunny for long, but considering that she went straight to Hank to find her, and it had to do with what she wanted to say to her the day before, well, Erin should have figured that it was only a matter of time before Bunny came face to face with her. Thankfully however, Erin had a quick talk with Voight before coming ere and as far as he knew, Bunny was not going to speak to Erin about Thea. While that did calm Erin down quite a bit, whatever she still had to say still managed to make Erin uneasy.

Because when you have Bunny as a mother, when did things go right in Erin's life. There were few tings that Erin could find herself not blaming Bunny for and even then, she still hated Bunny for everything he pulled on Erin growing up.

Speak of the devil, as soon as the thought crossed Erin's mind, Bunny sat down next to her. Before her mother could say one word though, Erin was already quick to bite. "When you say its an emergency, I REALLY hope you mean it." she groaned as she looked her mother in the eye, shaking her head.

Either not seeing Erin's cold shoulder, or not caring, Bunny simply gave her daughter a strained smile before saying the words Erin never thought she would say "your da; he's in town. And he wants to meet you."

Erin's eyes widened and her mouth dropped open. Dad? Town? See?

Her hot chocolate suddenly was very cold and only on word went through her mind.

Thea.

* * *

Later, Erin found herself in quite the odd situation. Kelly, her old boyfriend from the firehouse 51 crew had managed to get himself into a bit of trouble; his mustang had been found totaled after colliding with a minivan and a young woman's daughter, a little younger than Erin's own child had died. It was as if the world was out to get Erin. First her daughter shows up in town, and then her ex lover appears out of nowhere, an now her previous boyfriend was getting into trouble with the law.

Needless to say, Jay seemed to be taking it as well as could be expected. He seemed grumpier than usual. Erin hadn't told him where she was last night, nor whom she had been with. It hurt her to lie to him, but how was she supposed to break it to him that she had cheated on him. she didn't care with whom, the point was that she cheated; there was nothing in the world that could atone for that.

Just as she thought that, she was walking up to him after he spoke to a valet about Severide's situation. Judging by the look on his face, what little information, if any at all, he had received from the valet didn't seem to sit well with him.

"Hey" he began as the two of them walked down the street "the valet told me he gave Severide his keys and watched him drive off alone"

Erin shook her head, not really paying attention to what Jay was saying. Her thoughts were on Thea, whom she prayed was doing all right. Jay of course thought that she was shaking her head in response to what he was saying about Kelly.

"Erin. I think you got to start wrapping your head around the likelihood that Severide probably did this."

Erin gaped at her lover before stating, quite irately "you've got to stop being so quick to condemn him because he and I have history." She retorted, not wanting to get into an argument about how she belonged to no man.

"This is not about him!" jay replied angrily turning to Erin with a scowl on his face. Erin's lips pursed into a thin line, the unspoken question lingering in the air " _who was this about?"_

"This is about the little girl lying in the morgue."

Erin wanted to believe him, but she couldn't help but get the feeling that right now, Jay was talking with jealousy in mind, not justice.

* * *

Needless to say, that night, inside of Jay's car, Jay seemed to finally cool down about what had happened earlier that day. As Erin was sitting in the car thinking about her life, what would become of it anyway, Jay finally spoke.

"My bad"

Erin looked at him, surprised, but allowed him to continue "I didn't know you had feelings like that, for Severide."

Erin almost laughed upon hearing Jay say this; he seemed unsure of himself. Thankfully, Erin was quick to reassure him "I didn't" she stated truthfully _"I only had feelings like that for you… and Alex"_ she thought wistfully.

She turned away, before stating what was really on her mind "My real dad… is out of prison, and wants to meet me" she choked for a moment before continuing  
"Bunny just…." She trailed off "that might be why I'm just a little off" well she wasn't lying.

Jay was silent for a moment "You gonna meet him?" he asked.

"I don't know…" Erin began " I have my hands full with my daughter" he told Jay, before looking at him "I… I told her the truth. About us."

Jay seemed surprised and he looked at her concerned. He didn't even need to ask what had happened; he could just tell. "Are you going to see her again?"

Erin clasped her hands together, feeling the tears about to spill "I don't know. Would you want to see your family again after finding out the truth the hard way?" Erin asked him " I can't even bring myself to even call the house."

"Does she know why you did what you did?" Jay asked. Sure he didn't know, but step one was accepting the past.

Erin gave a deep sigh "I doubt she would forgive me anyway. Its like whenever my life is starting to go right, there is a pot hole" Erin said sadly

Before Jay could continue the conversation, a black Camaro pulled up nearby. A moment later, Hank's voice came onto the radio "Game time"

Erin grinned slightly, before turning to Jay and kissing him chastely, trying to give the impression tat she wasn't paying attention to the car they were supposed to be watching. Yet as she kissed her boyfriend, thoughts of what she had done the night before surfaced in her mind and a tear trickled down her cheek. Hoping Jay wouldn't notice, she cupped his cheek as she deepened the kiss, before sliding her hand to her gun, drawing it out in case the suspect came after them.

At this point, the guilt began to overwhelm her and she pulled out of the kiss, intent on telling Jay the truth, but before she could, the Camaro suddenly revved its engine, forcing Jay to turn back to the wheel and thus, a car chase ensued.

 _"I'm so sorry"_

* * *

After a rather unproductive end to the car chase and finding out more people being involved, which led to a lot of arrests and yet another operation in the dark, Erin found herself with Voight. She needed to tell someone about what she had done, and even though Voight wouldn't agree with her, he would understand and keep it a secret from Jay.

Best to start out small "does the name Jimmy Sanguinetti, mean anything to you?" Erin asked him, her voice cracking.

Hank didn't even budge "what about him?" he muttered

Erin gritted her teeth as the next few words left her mouth "apparently he's my dad." She growled

This got Hanks attention and he looked at her with a judgmental look that clearly said " _is this about you, or Thea?_ "

Erin ignored the look and continued as if he wasn't judging her "Bunny says he's out of prison. In town. Wants to reconnect" she told him quickly.

Hank was silent for a few moments, clearly digesting what Erin told him, before he looked out at the horizon "I met Sanguinetti a few times back when he was crashing with your mom."

What certainly got Erin's attention. "I thought you met bunny after you pulled me from the streets." she inquired, surprised that Hank had never told her this.

To her surprise, Hank began to chuckle "I knew your mom before you were even born; most of the young officers in the district knew Bunny, there was always a domestic calling the police." Hank waved his hand dismissing the idea. Too bad Erin was now extremely curious "why didn't you ever tell me that?"

Hank shrugged "Never came up." he replied

Erin sank back in her seat "Hank?" she asked, her voice cracking slightly.

Hank looked at her again, surprised by Erin's sudden change in attitude "what?"

Erin bit her lip and looked at her father figure "I… I think I'm becoming like her…" at his confused look she responded "Its Alex."

Hank turned to her his eyes wide and before he could ask exactly what Erin was saying, Erin dropped it all on him "I slept with him last night."

She closed her eyes, not wanting to stare at him in the eyes, but before she could, Hank was suddenly on his radio. Erin opened her eyes and looked at him, before turning and noticing the black Camaro.

 **"** _I_ _'m so sorry."_

* * *

Needless to say, Erin would have to find time to talk with Hank Jay, Bunny, Alexd and Thea (all at different intervals of course) to either apologize explain or hope that things would just get better. Not that she was being optimistic about it.

As Erin took another sip of her Drink an older unfamiliar man approached her and her blood ran cold.

Her biological father had just entered the room.

* * *

 **Yeah I know, not much, but like I said in the last chapter, I'** **m trying to tie in the current season with this fic because of the whole family thing happening in both the show, and this fanfic. As always leave your thoughts.**

 **Till then!**


	17. Chapter 17

**Another chapter dealing with the more recent episodes with Erin. But not to worry, once I get done with them, the story will continue to take an original turn until we hear more about Erin's parentage. So please be patient and enjoy this chapter in the meantime.**

* * *

"Erin" Jimmy breathed, looking at his apparent daughter with awe.

Erin gaped at the man who was apparently her father, and to be quite honest, even though she had waited for this moment for most of her life, she couldn't say that she was impressed. Jimmy was a bit taller than her, with greasy black, almost greying hair, with a beard and an extremely thin build, likely do to his malnourishment in prison.

Still when you have no father, you take what you can get, or Erin supposed.

Jimmy looked like he was about to cry, and Erin almost followed suit, but do to her not wanting to break down, she held back her tears. "Would you like to sit down?" She asked awkwardly, gesturing to the empty seat across from her.

Jimmy suddenly looked embarrassed "oh right…." he muttered, taking off his jacket and sitting down Erin watched him warily. Something about this felt way to odd, but she chalked it up to an awkward reunion.

Erin looked at him, still trying to get a read on him. Why hadn't he tried to contact her or her mother before now? "Bunny always said you were locked up." Erin began.

Jimmy responded by chewing his lip, clearly in deep thought. "yeah" he relied, as if he knew that was something that Bunny would say "I've been out ten years. Ok that was going to piss Erin off real quick. Why would Jimmy wait ten years if he knew that he had a daughter waiting for him? "I was married; that's why you didn't hear from me," he began "we've got two boys of our own."

Erin looked away, digesting what her father had told her, clasping her hands. First she reunites with her daughter, whom she never thought she'd see again, then her ex boyfriend an the father of said child walks back into her life, then her father shows up out of nowhere and to boot, Erin now had half brothers out there somewhere? If her life were going to get any crazier, she would be likely to shoot herself.

The young woman clasped her hands, looking at jimmy with disappointment "Married convict with a whole other family; there is a catch." Of course something like this would happen Why she should be expecting anything less? Life was never going to be that easy for Erin. It never was.

Jimmy chuckled "nobody involved exactly had their stuff together." he said causing Erin to gaze at him, after which he replied "but you turned out ok"

Oh wow, he had the gall to sound impressed with himself. But Erin knew better and she shot him a scornful look "so you're off the hook?" she spat, causing Jimmy to shuffle guiltily, but Erin continued down her war path "so I'm guessing you were my secret admirer. All the hang up calls, the flower sent a couple of months ago?"

Jimmy bit his lip and his eyes shifted slightly, as if in pain "I was visiting a friend. Didn't make it. It could have been me, twelve different ways."

Jimmy then moved forward, causing Erin to stiffen. Father or not, she was not comfortable having a man she just met this close to her. "I'm going to be in town for a few days. I wasn't there for you then…." Jimmy started, his voice cracking "But I'd like to be… now if you let me."

Erin gazed at her father, bewildered by his offer, and for a moment she saw Alex before her standing, begging her for the same chance. Then she saw herself, begging Thea for forgiveness, knowing that given the sate she left the girl, she would never have the pleasure of being the mother that she was supposed to be. Not to mention, thinking of being in that situation was overwhelming Erin as it was, so she did what anyone under stress would do. She raised a hand, stopping any more words from Jimmy, if he was going to talk that is, then grabbed her drink and chugged it down, before slamming her glass on the table and stood up, frowning. "I'm glad we met" he told Jimmy, anger seething in her voice and she grabbed her jacket and stood up. She ignored Jimmy's heartbroken eyes "You enjoy Chicago." she sarcastically told him before walking out of the bar.

* * *

The next morning, Erin found herself at her desk, Jay beside her. It still bothered her that she was unable to explain that he had cheated on him; add to the fact that he was now involved with her family affairs due to the fact other than Hank, he was the only one that could help her, she was just not happy about her current situation. "So, how did it go, with… your dad?" Jay asked, though he felt like he was going to choke saying that. God this was going to be an extremely awkward conversation to have.

Erin shrugged "um. It went…" she shook her head "I don't even know if I want this in my life." She moaned dryly "with Thea in town, its just going to be far too much for me." She had to bit her tongue in an effort to not reveal that besides Jimmy being in town, Alex, her ex boyfriend and Thea's father was here to. That was going o make Jay angry for sure.

Jay smiled at her "Erin, just give it time. After Jimmy leaves, try to patch things up with Thea. She can't hate you forever."

Erin looked at Jay, giving him an annoyed look. Thea, not going to be angry at her or the rest of her life. Did Jay forget who he was talking to Erin hated her mother. Thea was her daughter, so if they were anything alike, right now, Thea would want Erin as far away from her as possible for lying to her.

Jay had to stifle a laugh, knowing what he said was stupid considering that it was Erin he was talking to. So he changed gears "want me to dig in check his financials and see if he's coming out of the woodwork?

Erin smiled and shook her head. The gesture was sweet, but she just met Jimmy the last thing she wanted was to screw this up intentionally, if he was, indeed her father. She just wanted her space for now. "no" she told Jay. There wasn't much of a point. If it came to that Erin would not hesitate to throw him out of her life just like she did to her mother.

* * *

Meanwhile, Alex was on the phone with his superior at the CIA. He was supposed to be heading back to Washington, but he needed to stay here in Chicago. It was likely that his superior officer wasn't going to like that Idea at all, but having a god reason would probably be able to help him out with being able to stay here.

"Are you sure about this Agent Nolan; your work there is finished and you are required to return to your post." The female on the other line told him sternly "you were expected to arrive this morning actually." She almost sounded disappointed, but as one of her best agents, Jane was certain that her colleague had a very good reason. It wasn't like him to suddenly go AWOL

To say that the young man was glad his boss couldn't see him was a bit of an understatement. He was supposed to check in the other day, but after his secret tryst with Erin and discovering that he was a father kind of threw him for a loop and he forgot all about the fact that he was supposed to be heading back to D.C. but he had to stay here and try and build a bond with his daughter and reconnect with Erin. Surely his boss could understand that this was a special case. Assuming she wouldn't think he was lying or that she would fire him for this. Not that she was heartless. It was that Mrs. Fields really prioritized work over everything ever since she had lost her family and this conversation made Alex feel uncomfortable as a result.

He bit his lip and breath a heavy sigh, rubbing his eyes before he began to tell his tale. "Mamn" he bean before tasking another breath "I have discovered some very important information about someone very important to me and I would like to request sometime off so that I could deal with it here. Perhaps a temporary transfer is in order? It would help me stay here without going AWOL."

There was a pause and a moment later, Jane asked "is there a good reason that you would be requesting a transfer?" ah there it was, even without seeing her, Alex could tell that his boss had a eyebrow raised and was probably imagining herself staring at I'm with an expectant look on her face.

Well, might as well rip the band aid off then worry about facing the music later "I have jut discovered that I am a father and I would like to request a transfer and some time off so that I may be able to get to know my daughter and reconnect with the mother of my child."

There was a moment of silence as if all the air had been sucked out of the room. Despite himself, Alex closed his eyes and waited for his boss to recover "well," she began "that is a good reason to request a transfer." She sounded shocked, not that Alex was expecting anything less. "it will take tame for the paper work to be complete, so for now, I am giving you two weeks leave." She told him "once the paper work had gone through, I will contact you and tell you where you will be stationed "

Alex smiled "thanks Boss." He told her.

He could hear the smile in Jane's voice as she told him "Good luck, Agent Nolan" before she hung up the phone.

Alex placed his phone down on the table. He needed to speak to Erin again. They might not be able to get along well, but they had one thing in common. Thea needed them and like it or not, they were all she had. Erin might not have told him about her then, but here and now, Erin was not going to run from him this time.

Grabbing his jacket, Alex left his apartment. He had a job to do.

* * *

Despite the fact that she had told him not too, a few days later, Erin found out that Jay did in fact run Jimmy's financials and found at the very least, he was a charitable guy, and because of that, or maybe despite everything, Erin found herself at dinner with her father and mother. It was awkward to be fair but she stuck through it, basically running on hope at the moment.

"You were getting older" Bunny was explaining, and Jimmy was married." she turned a teasing glance at her lover, who smiled. "we just couldn't keep up with the Jimmy as family friend thing so…" Bunny trailed off, not able to really continue. Erin was about to call the situation awkward, but then Jimmy spoke up "apparently there was a mix up at your mothers storage facility he began followed by Bunny groaning in annoyance "I gave them a forwarding address!", but Jimmy continued, ignoring the elder Lindsey "and apparently your childhood pictures were there and there all gone now."

Erin shrugged. They were only pictures, and her childhood wasn't exactly fun so she didn't mind.

"but," he told the young woman "I saved some your mom sent me, over the years." Jimmy then produced a small folder and handed it to Erin. "I thought you might like this."

Erin took the small folder and opened it, being greeted by a picture of her in her toddler years with a bunny in her lap, smiling wide at the camera. Erin's heart dropped. She could see Thea in this picture. Was this what she looked like as a child. Did she even have any pictures like this? Or were they lost to time?

"Wow" she breathed trying to hide her sadness "this is…" she began, but didn't know where to continue.

"Hey!" Jimmy said gently "we're supposed to be celebrating!" then he looked at Bunny "Your mom and I are going to buy that new salon she's been looking at" he raised a glass "she's going to be a job creator.

Next to her, Jay snorted. Both he and Erin were not impressed. Bunny wasn't a hard worker, so this would be a sight to see. "congratulations" Jay said before taking a swig of his beer.

Bunny blushed under the praise "thank you Jay." A few moments later she smiled and said "well. I think its time for the old people to hit the bricks." She then proceeded to lean on Jimmy, before sliding out of the booth, going over to Erin and kissing her cheek, while Jimmy shook hands with Jay. She then walked away, leaving Jimmy behind. He and Erin locked eyes for a moment, before he smiled and walked off.

Despite everything, Erin was glad she id this, though she wasn't sure whether or not to trust Jimmy as off yet. Her thoughts were broken as Jay turned to her and said, "Just promise me one thing." Erin turned to Jay, concerned. "Let me run a DNA test on him, just to be sure that this whole thing isn't a fantasy."

Erin chuckled. Her life was terrible right now, what with not being able to see her daughter and still unable to confess to her infidelity. "no" she told Jay shaking her head.

"No" Jay echoed. He couldn't believe Erin right now, what with her life being so crazy between the introduction of bother her daughter and (apparently) her biological father in her life, so he wasn't entirely sure that the woman he loved as in her right mind set at the moment.

"If it is a fantasy, let me live in it for a minute." She told him, looking at the photo of her. Erin knew that she might be setting herself up for failure, but with Jimmy and Bunny being the only happy things in her life right now, with her easing the pain of Thea's rejection and her gilt walking out on Alex weighing heavily on her heart, this would be the only thing that kept her in a dream she so desperately wanted to come true.

* * *

 **What could Alex be up to? Well, he's going to be doing something important. Will he see Erin or Thea? You'll just have to wait and see!**


	18. Chapter 18

**Sorry for the long wait. I've been busy working at a new job and it sucks the life out of m. This chapter isn't the best, because it ties into the end of the first half of the season of the show, but the next chapter or the chapter after that will go back to being original. Enjoy!**

* * *

A few days later, Erin found herself in the kitchen of the Squad room with Jay, getting some much needed coffee, when woe and behold, Platt walked in the room, Jimmy beside her. "Someone here to see you detective"

Jay turned around, noticing her father "Hey!" she said smiling, as Platt walked out of the room and Jimmy came towards her, digging his hand into a bag her brought in with him. From the bag, he produced a Photo album, which looked old and barely held together, but Erin was glad to see that Jimmy was able to save see photos, like the loving father she hoped he was. "Here's the photo album I was telling you about"

Erin took the album and turned to Jay who had a gleeful smile on his face as he handed Jimmy a cup of coffee, before glancing at the album, just as Erin turned to the first page revealing the first of many childhood Photos "awww. That's super cute!" Jay started to gush, but he was not even bothering to hide the laughter that seeped into his voice.

Erin looked at him and began to roll her eyes, not amused by Jay laughing at her, but she smiled. It was all in good fun.

A few moments later Hank walked into the room. Erin froze. She did not want this to happen. Sure Hank knew that Jimmy was in town but them coming face to face? Just be calm…

"Hank!" she cried, unable to keep the surprise out of her voice "this is…"

Before she could finish, Hank smiled, albeit a little strained. Going over to Jimmy "Jimmy Sanguinetti" he extended is hand. Jimmy stood up from the table he sat down at, going over to Hank, shaking hands like old friends

"Hank." He began "looking good; still at your fighting weight" he joked. Hank shrugged in response, not really sure what to say to that. Or perhaps there was nothing he really wanted to say to Jimmy either.

Despite the slightly cold shoulder, Jimmy looked between Erin and Hank, smiling "I just wanted to say… You've done a good job raising her."

This time, Hank's smile widened and with an air of pride, responded with "Happy to help" he then turned to Erin and Jay "we've got a case." he told them, before exiting the room

Realizing that break time was over, Erin quickly looked at Jimmy "that means we've got to go!" she told him quickly. Naturally Jimmy understood, getting ready to leave. Before he could, Erin tried to hand him back the album, but Jimmy refused, saying that it was for her, but relented a before leaving the room.

Erin watched him leave, her heart swelling with what she hoped was love, but was distracted by the sound of liquid going down the drain. Turning back, she noticed that the source was Jay, who had taken the cup of coffee Jimmy had drunk from and had poured the coffee down the drain.

Jay barely looked at her as he brushed passed her, taking a bag to place the coffee cup in "this is me running the DNA, not you" he snapped, going to leave the room.

Erin sighed, following Jay. Se had specifically told him that she didn't want this, yet he was going to do I anyway! It was starting to get on her nerves. "Jay…" she began

Jay tuned to her, shoving the cup in the bag "Erin," his voice was full of sympathy, but his voice was cold "we want to know if this guy is who your mom says he is."

Erin glared at him, but didn't argue, instead going to her desk to get ready to go to the crime scene.

* * *

Later that day, Jay puled Erin aside in private. Apparently, ay had gotten the results rather fast. Despite herself Erin was nervous, and she prayed that Jay was wrong. Jimmy might not be the most welcome person Erin wanted for a father, but after years, Bunny had provided her with closer and now Jay was threatening to tear open the old wound.

"So," she asked, "what you find" she asked Jay as they walked into an empty room, before turning and folding her arms angrily.

Jay looked down, given Erin the only answer that she needed to know. Her heart pounded angrily in her chest and her face fell, but she cold still feel herself cling desperately to hope as Jay opened the folder he had with him "I had my guy at the lab run the DNA" he pulled out a paper and handed it to Erin who looked at it with shock and she barely registered the next words out of Jays mouth " Erin he's not your dad. I'm so sorry."

No he wasn't. Erin glanced at him, tears brimming in her eyes, but a deep scowl on her face. "Are you happy now?!" she growled her voice seething with rage, before stomping out of the room. She wasn't sure who she wanted to kill more Bunny, for lying, or Jay for hurting her, but she knew one thing. Someone was going to die for this.

* * *

Apparently, Jay was the first person that was going to be at the business end of Erin's rage. After being pulled aside, she talked to Hank and fond out that apparent, Jay had pushed Hank in order to get the truth faster "You kept pushing Hank, even though I wasn't ready!" she yelled at Jay angrily, seconds away from tearing his ears off for his insolence.

Jay was nowhere near s scared as e should have been, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed, looking very unashamed of himself "you know what Erin, personally I would wanna next time you wanna stick your head in the sand, just raise your hand and I'll leave you there."

Oh no! Jay was not going to pull that card. He knew exactly what she was going through right now and his interference had stopped getting on her nerves and was now pissing her off!

Unfortunately, Jay was saved by the intervention of Hank. Damn it. But Erin wasn't done yet.

* * *

The next day, Erin found her Mother at her favorite breakfast diner, happily eating the day away.

The moment Erin laid eyes on her, her blood boiled and everything that had happened between them only made it worse. She threw her coat on the chair across from her mother and sat down, ignoring her mothers greeting. A snarl working it way onto Erin's lip's as she glared daggers into her mother's eyes.

"What's the matter? You look upset." Bunny asked, not looking very concerned as Erin predicted from her. Not that she minded. As far as Erin was concerned,

Bunny cared very little about Erin, as evidenced by her childhood with the elder woman. The only thing she wanted at the moment was for her mother to burn in hell

Erin shuddered with rage as she spoke to her mother "Jimmy isn't my father." She snapped at her mother angrily. "I ran his DNA"

This finally got a reaction from Bunny. She blinked, registering the words Erin had said, before shaking her head in disbelief "what? no!" she responded, clearly not believing a word her daughter said "are you sure—"

Erin cut her off "99.9 % sure; forensic analyzed a coffee cup with his saliva on it" with each word spoken, the rage in her continued to build.

Bunny was silent for a moment before looking at her daughter dead in the eye "who sent it in?" she challenged, seemingly believing Erin was trying to make her look bad.

Erin looked at her mother, her eyes narrowing with rage as she struggled not to throw herself at Bunny "that's what matters to you right now?" she snapped angrily

. She knew what game her mother was trying to play here and it wasn't going to work.

"No!" Bunny argued looking at Erin with defiance "all this time I thought he was!

Erin couldn't believe it. Bunny didn't even know who her father was! Had she slept with so many people that her mother didn't realize the moment that Erin was conceived? Well on the bright side, Erin never had to worry about that ever happening to Thea.

Instead she looked at Bunny and growled, "What game are you running?"

Bunny rolled her eyes not understanding Erin at all. "Do you think I would send pictures to Jimmy for 15 years because of a con?" she snapped.

Erin rolled her eyes. Of course she would believe it. Money and booze was practically all that Bunny lived for. Why would now be any different? "Do you want to tell him or should I?" this was a conversation she never thought she would ever have to have with Jimmy, but here she was, because she didn't believe that she could trust her own mother

Bunny looked shocked, as if she couldn't believe that Erin was asking that from her " well… he really cars about you…" she bit her lip "Maybe you don't have to tell him.

Erin's mouth worked furiously, her heart shattering upon hearing her mother's words. Suddenly she was back in the hospital 15 and pregnant having this exact conversation with Voight about telling Alex about there daughter and she had refused, wanting Erin to have the best life she could provide for her, which didn't include either of her parents.

Fast forward to the present and Erin had learned from that. People just couldn't go living a lie because one day, it would just up and blow up in their faces.

Erin's rage boiled over and she finally found found the outlet she was looking for. All the hope and all the grief her mother had put her through. She was done with it. She stood up, shoving Bunny's breakfast off the table as she stared at her mother with pure rage her body shaking with agony "WHY DO YOU KEEP DOING THIS TO ME?! She roared at her mother.

Without waiting for a response, Erin grabbed her jacket and stomped out of the diner.

* * *

Later on, Erin found herself on the street, looking at Jimmy; the man she now knew was not her father. She didn't want it to come to this, but she knew that it had to be done. She wouldn't go living a lie, no matter how much of a fantasy it was.

"So now we know…" she told him, trying desperately to hold back the tears. She had calmed down from her encounter with Bunny, but being fatherless still left her in pain.

Jimmy shrugged "yep" he responded, but he looked just as embarrassed as she was.

Erin bit her lip "listen I'm sorry.…" she began, but found herself at a loss for words. There was nothing that could fix this. Not know not ever "I don't even know what to say…"

"Stop" Jimmy told her "I'm glad you ran the test; saved me a lot of time" he told her with a smile.

At first Erin was about to smile as well, glad that Jimmy wasn't taking this terribly and it seemed like there weren't any hard feelings between them at least (couldn't say the same for Bunny) and was about to take back the album that he would have made copies of, but what happened next tore her heart in two. He pulled it away and gave her a stone cold glare "what the hell was this? What did you two want?"

Erin's mouth dropped open and despite herself, her face crumbled into a plea for forgiveness "nothing!" she begged, knowing that Jimmy wouldn't believe her now. " I didn't want—"

Jimmy interrupted her by dropping the album, silencing her. "You and Bunny ever call me again, I swear to god! I'll call the feds." He turned away from her and walked towards his truck. He before turned back to Erin "they have a whole division, for scam artists. Like you." he growled before getting into his truck and driving off.

With a heavy heart, Erin took the album, and left for home.

* * *

After dropping off the photo album, Erin found herself with an old friend at the bar, just needing a night away from everything. Between her guilt with Thea Alex and now Jimmy, Erin was wondering whether or not her presence in Chicago was making her life worse and by extension, everyone that she cared about. She barely listened to her friend talk, just drowning it out while she was sinking into her own happy little depression.

"I don't know Annie…" she sighed "If I could move and start over right now…. I would" she took another drink and gulped it down

"What's stopping you?" Annie asked Erin

Erin couldn't answer, but there was a single person on her mind that was stopping her from moving away. She just couldn't admit to herself who it was.

* * *

 **Well, anyone want to get the reason behind Erin staying? Feel free to guess. Till then!**


	19. Chapter 19

**Welcome to the last chapter of the "Erin Episode" Saga. After this, the story will go back to being original, though it does include an original scene that will tie into later chapters.**

 **Can I ask you a question? Do you think most people who are reading my story just don't like Alex? I know that everyone who watches Chicago pd loves linstead. I'm not a fan of romance in Dick Wolf shows so I think it provides me of the advantage of not being biased while writing because I do not want to write Lindsay as (insert proper word here) in terms of romance with Jay or Alex. But there will be romance with both.**

 **It would help if I had someone's opinion. Thank you.**

* * *

"Who's Abby?" Erin asked before she could stop herself, a week and a half later while working a case. She was in the break room alone with Jay and now just seemed like the perfect time to ask him about it.

Maybe it was because she was pissed about the whole Jimmy thing, or maybe she was feeling jealous and angry that another woman was calling HER boyfriend and said boyfriend wasn't providing her with the slightest bit of information. Either way, Erin was pissed and Jay seemed to be the perfect person to take her fury on right now.

Ok if she was being honest, she was just using this as an excuse to not tell jay about her own infidelity, not that she thought Jay was like that. Then again, SHE hadn't expected to seduce her ex boyfriend as a way of coping with losing her daughter. But hey, at least Alex wasn't texting her. Not that she wasn't wondering what he was doing, not at all

Ok, what was he doing? Wait a second. Don't get distracted woman!

"she has been blowing up your phone. she sent you five texts while you were in the shower last week." She told Jay Gritting her teeth harder with each word that escaped her lips. "I've been waiting for you to tell me who this chic is, but it looks lie I'm just going to have to ask you."

Jay closed the break room door, then walked to Erin, a tight somber frown on his lips as he began his story "Abby ran cultural support on my last tour. A year later I saw her at a funeral in Vegas a friend of ours had deployed and…" he trailed off, knowing that Erin would be able to understand "I was blacking out most nights, and we got married."

Erin's brain jammed and stopped listening after the word married. Jay. Her Jay Halstead! Jay Halstead had been MARRIED!

"Jay," Erin whispered, "You married this girl, and you were never told me?" Jay looked at her blankly, while Erin became more and more disappointed "and you were never going to tell me." The last bit came out harsher and more accusatory than she had intended.

Ok Erin knew she was being a bit harsh and a bit of a hypocrite. Sure being married in Vegas was embarrassing and probably wasn't something anyone would want to share. But marriage was something important don't you think? But of course having a kid was just as important and Erin never told Jay that, nor was she going to tell him because Thea wasn't in her life and really wasn't supposed to be! But then again, she supposed Abby wasn't supposed to be in Jay either.

Life turned out well for them didn't it?

Before Jay could argue that point, (especially the bit about how SHE had never told him about Thea) Kim thankfully walked in with a break on the case.

* * *

Alex sat in his cruiser, staring at the school that Thea went too. Over the past few weeks had had secretly been watching Thea, knowing that it was far too dangerous to approach her. Sure, as her father, he felt he had every right to see her. She was his daughter after all. But Dwight had told him in no uncertain terms, as Thea's legal guardian…. Well…

 _Alex looked in the direction that Erin had fled to after slapping him. damn, he always knew that angry girls hit hard when slapping someone, but Erin must have been hitting the gym, because that slap felt like it was backed up by the power of that time of month._

 _Shaking his head, he looked at Dwight with a heavy glare " did you know?" he growled, his hands shaking in anger._

 _Alas, despite being known for his skills in intimidation, Dwight happened to be the only person capable of ignoring his friends angry glares. Who do you think taught him?_

 _Dwight stroked his chin and he scowled at Alex "No son, I did not. Bu do not accuse me o hiding anything. Clearly you didn't know, but as I am Thea's legal guardian, I must ask you to leave; Now!" he barked leaving no room for an argument, much like the orders he gave Alex during their time in the army._

 _Alex growled, his face twisted into a snarl "she's my daughter!" he pointed to where Erin fled "OUR Daughter!"_

 _Dwight gritted his teeth and started shouting gave Alex the look of nightmares "I understand boy! But arguing is not going to help her! You want to be a father, the first thing you have to understand. It IS NOT about YOU!" he stopped a moment letting the info sink in "Right now, Thea is hurt! Give her time, or I promise, I promise you'll lose her!"_

 _He let out a breath, calming down before talking again, this time with more empathy "I'll try and calm her down; besides, if anyone needs help its Erin."_

 _Alex frowned, looking at the door, before back to Dwight "take care of her." he told him threateningly before stomping out the door in search of Erin._

Yeah, it wasn't exactly the best way for that conversation to go down especially since Thea heard the whole thing, but Alex was still too upset to care at the time.

He still couldn't believe that Erin never told him. then again, she had unceremoniously dumped him in anger and every time he tried to talk to her after their first time, she gave him the cold shoulder an eventually e stopped trying altogether, before being shipped off to military school to learn discipline. Sure it worked and to be honest, everything ha probably worked out for the best (as both he and Erin were heroin addicts, they would have been terrible parents), but he still felt cheated that he never knew about his own child.

He looked at his watch; it was close to the time that tha should get out, so he focused on the doors to the school. Soon enough, the doors opened and a sawm of teenagers fled the school, happy to have the afternoon off.

Then, he saw her, as he so often did. She trudged out of the school, clearly still angry about her ordeal. Perhaps she was seeing someone to cope? He wasn't sure, but Alex was glad that Thea wan't getting into trouble, even if she was still angry.

The way she looked…. She looked so much like Erin it scared him. Erin and he, they had made Thea, and there she was, all alone, without anyone.

He needed to speak to Erin. It was time.

Shifting his car into gear, Alex left the school and headed back to his apartment, his heart feeling like deadweight in his chest tears leaking down his face.

* * *

Later that night, Erin entered her apartment, a little down about the case. Sure, they saved the day and in he process, the lives of two young girls who might have other wise been lost. But what really had Erin down was the fact that the two girls, despite everything, kept there strong bond and didn't seem to be holding anything against each other, despite the trauma that they had faced over the past few days.

It made Erin want to reach out to Thea, who certainly hadn't made the same effort, not that Erin could blame her for it; the girl had every right to be pissed and if Erin was honest with herself, it wasn't handled very well at all

But Erin wanted to see her again. She needed to be there for Thea, even if she didn't want her to be. If there was anything this case had stirred within her, it was the instincts that she had been ignoring ever since the day she gave up her daughter.

The instinct of a mother wanting to protect her child.

She wasn't sure if she wanted to contact Alex about that; she didn't even know what he was doing, let alone ho to contact him. sure, he wanted Thea as much as she did, but Erin wasn't so sure if them being together was best. They hadn't talked about it at all. not to mention, being with Jay meant that Thea would technically have a step father, and with the young girl trying to adjust to the idea of even having parents being a challenge (as far as Erin knew when she last saw Thea) Jay would definitely be a sore spot for Thea at the moment.

As she thought about it, Erin walked into her bedroom and was treated to a rather odd sight. Jay was packing his cloth as if he was intending to leave.

Erin's eyes widened. What in the world as Jay thinking? Before she could ask that exact question, Jay turned around, putting more cloths in a bag on the bed, barley shocked by Erin standing on the other side of the bed. "Hey." He mumbled, his voice worn as he turned back to the dresser to grab more cloths.

"Hey" Erin echoed, still in shock at what was unfolding before her.

Jay finally finished packing and he glanced at Erin, looking on the verge of tears, but he held them back, if just for her sake. "I'm going to stay at Will's for a while" he told her bluntly, but with a hint of regret in his voice

Erin couldn't believe what she was hearing! Sure the two had been on Rocky ground ever since Thea arrive. That wasn't the problem of couse, a least not completely. It was only part of the problem. Thea had arrived, then the whole Jimmy fiasco happened, not to mention that Alex arrived in town, compounding the fact that Jay was talking to his own Ex, whom he was married to at one point, and that Erin had cheated on Jay, not that she was sure how to tell him that. All of that had put a wedge between her and Jay, but now this?

"You don't have to do that!" Erin told him, her heart bating faster, at the thought of Jay leaving her. Oh god, she was pleading and she didn't want to. She loved hi; she didn't want him to leave, but she knew that once his mind was made up, it was impossible to change.

Jay only looked at her with concern "I love you; and I want to stay." He blinked looking away from Erin for a moment "who I was then, I'm not proud of it, and I know you think everything is by, but its not"

He walked to the other side of the bed, standing directly in front of Erin. He gave her a sad smiled "and I'm still married; I've got to sort that out.

Erin shook her head, the memory of her night with Alex appearing in her mind screaming at her. It tore at her heart and weighed heavily on her shoulders and she just wanted to get rid of it.

"and I just don't think I should be here right now." Jay told her.

Erin wanted to say that she could handle it; that together they could do anything. But she couldn't. Not with her guilt at leaving Thea and her love for Alex tearing her in two. And she couldn't let Jay go without him knowing the truth. He trusted her with the truth. And she could bear to lose him because she lied to him.

"you're right…" Erin whispered biting her lip as a tear leaked down her cheek. "Maybe we should take some time away from each other." She stuttered that last bit, feeling he heart tear in two as she spoke them. it wasn't the best thing to do, but it was the right thing to do.

Her hands began shaking and she looked at the ground, unable to hold her chin high as she began pouring her heart out. "I need to sort things out with Thea; she's my daughter and I let her down." Jay knew that much, but she was scared about how he'd handle the rest "the last time I saw her, weeks ago, " she choked slightly, as tears were now flowing freely. "and… her father was with us."

If Jay was shocked, she didn't know. She couldn't bear to see his face right now. "Thea found out about us… All of us. I was so upset and…" Erin stopped and with sheer force of will, lifted her gaze so she could look at Jay in the eye . her eye were red and bloodshot from her tears, but with her wall at last coming down she finally spoke the words that plagued her at night "I slept with him."

That was it. Her resolve broke and she began sobbing freely, her body shaking as she finally let everything go.

She let her head fall back, expecting Jay to be angry with her, as he should be. She was a terrible person and she took him for granted. She had given him her love and had spat in his face by sleeping with another man How could he forgive her?

She got her answer and Jay tenderly wrapped an arm around her, tangling his hand in her hair. He leaned in close and with the most tender, loving voice she ever heard from him, whispered in her ear "I'm sorry."

Erin said nothing as Jay let go of her, taking his suitcase, and leaving the apartment. A few moments later, Erin heard the door shut.

As soon as Erin heard the door shut, her knees gave out and every bit of strength she possessed in her muscles failed her as she sank to the floor, curling into a ball as the weight of her guilt was lifted off her shoulders, yet lingered within her heart, like a stone taking root into her very core.

The tears fell harder and faster, the water dripping down her chin as she started sobbing harder, drawing breaths in increments., no matter how hard she tried she just couldn't stop crying. Where would she go from here? She had lost her daughter, she refused to see Alex and Jay had walked out on her? what was left for her now? she had no one.

She was all-alone.

* * *

 **I KNOW, everyone likes Linstead, but per my story (and lets face it, the show should have done this given the circumstances) I felt Jay should have broken up with Erin until he squared away his divorce, but the show never acknowledges it (would you feel comfortable dating someone, when legally, YOU are married and not having problems?). The episode ends with him moving out, and the next episode acts like nothing** **happened, like it was just casual thing. Of course, here it helps that Erin cheated on him, but I try too make him understanding enough to forgive her. So for now, their relationship is up in the air.**

 **Like I said earlier, romance in Dick Wolf shows is just not something I care about. The only one I liked was Elliot Stabler and his wife Kathy, because he played the role of a husband and father who tried to prevent his family from being dragged into the world he worked in, but was forced to on a multitude of occasions (particularly because of his daughter Kathleen) and keep everyone he loved from falling apart.**

 **Everyone else though, the romance is just "there" and has no real bearing on the show for the most part. I don't know about Chicago PD, I never watched Linstead grow, so I don't particularly care about it, and nothing I have seen has changed my mind on the matter. but I DO try to respect my readers and the relationship in general, so if you have a problem with my interpretation, I'm sorry, but this is my story.**

 **On a lighter note, my sponsor, markMg9718, has published a cast listing and summary for his upcoming story. Check it out!**


	20. Chapter 20

**Well, that was quick. Huh. I actually has quite a bit more time on my hands today then I normally don't have a lot of time on my hands, but here it is.**

 **Now that season 4 is over and sees the end of sophia bush as part of P.D. I will be working on this more diligently. Part of my absences was because I was waiting for any info on season 5. Since Erin won't be in Season 5, expect more chapters to be released quickly.**

 **Also VERY LONG authors note at the bottom.**

* * *

Erin stood in her apartment gazing at the card of Jennifer gave her a few days ago, after Agent Spencer told her that the FBI wanted her to join there terrorism task force based in New York. Erin was honestly torn apart about that. On one hand, her career in the CPD and her personal relationship (or what little she had) with her mother was all but destroyed now that her mother was in custody for holding onto narcotics of all things. Erin didn't care anymore. Her mother had always been more of a nuisance than a parent, and after a long string of heartbreaks, Erin couldn't take Bunny in her life anymore.

And New York would provide her with a fresh start, and perhaps she would grow closer to new work mates and even find time to spend with the Law and Order Special Victims Unit

On the other hand, while Erin was more than happy to move on with her life, there were several things that were stopping her from making the hop jump and skip over to New York right now.

Her relationship with Jay was up in the air right now, but she knew that she didn't want to just leave him (especially since she had been ignoring him due to her problems) without a proper goodbye at least. She loved him, but with her problems, Erin wasn't sure that she deserved Jay, let alone wanted drag him down with her.

Then there was Alex, who was sending Erin's emotions into a whirlwind. While she hadn't had any contact with him, and therefore didn't know what he was doing, she knew him well enough to know that after their one nightstand, he wouldn't leave without telling her. While she wasn't sure if she loved him, there were still unresolved feelings to deal with there.

The biggest problem was Thea. Erin didn't want to leave Thea with feelings of neglect and hatred; the same feelings that even now, Erin felt for her own mother. Erin was never able to stand having her mother in her life. She wouldn't be able to bear living a life where her relationship with her daughter was the same.

Agent Spencer had told her to get back to her when she was ready. Erin had thought about going after Bunny had been arrested, but there was still so much going on with her life, that she wasn't sure she was ready just yet. Not when she still had to make peace with her past.

Throwing the card on her desk, Erin grabbed her jacket, before storming out of her apartment. She needed to sort things out and only one person would be able to help her right now.

* * *

Later in this chapter of her life, Erin would wonder why she ever thought that this was a good idea, but as it stood right now, Erin found herself standing in front of Alex's apartment door, the hardwood laughing at her.

Erin herself didn't know why she was drawn back to Alex, especially since she told him that they could never be together, but unfortunately he made a good point. He was Thea's father and had every right to her as Erin did. Or at least would, if they could make something work with Thea's foster family.

Approaching Thea herself would only cause more trouble than was needed, and Jay couldn't help her with this, no matter how much she loved him or was willing to help her.

Lets face it, she owed him this after she abandoned him and didn't tell him about Thea in the first place.

Erin swallowed hard, her palms getting clammy from her nerves. It shouldn't be so hard for her, but it was.

Her hand shook; she shouldn't be doing this. Thea wouldn't want her in her life. Erin had abandoned her. But damn it all, Erin wanted to take this chance. It would hurt more missing out on Thea's life because she didn't try. All the things that could be, that could've been.

Gathering her wits, Erin forced her hand to move, smashing it against the wood with more force than necessary. The sound reverberated loudly across the hall. If that didn't get Alex's attention, Erin didn't know what would.

Sure enough, there was a muffled voice from the other side of the door, and a few moments later, Alex opened the door from the inside. "Erin?!" he yelped, clearly surprised that Erin showed up at door. After what happened several weeks ago, he was convinced that Erin wouldn't want to see him again.

Erin just stood there, her eyes cold and steely. "We need to talk." She told him.

Alex stepped aside, allowing Erin to enter his apartment. Erin walked passed her ex, going over to his couch and sitting down. She peeled off her jacket, tossing it beside her, holding her hands in her lap. Every never in the fiber of her being was screaming that this was a bad idea, but she was doing her best to ignore it. It helped that Erin wasn't as emotionally stressed; as she had been last time she was here.

Erin sat there for what seemed like hours, brought out of her thoughts by the sound of Alex's voice. "Erin. Why are you here?"

Erin's head snapped up, and she saw Alex looking at her with concern, a bottle of water in his hand, extended towards her. With a shaking hand, Erin took the bottle and gently unscrewed the cap, taking a swig, before looking at Alex, who had folded his arms and was beginning to look rather impatient.

Erin sighed, giving Alex a serious look, but it crumbled as she began her story. I lost my job, Alex."

Said mans face twitched with surprise and sympathy, but otherwise, Alex's face showed no emotion. It almost made Erin laugh. Her ex could be rather stoic it seemed. Then again, she hadn't gotten to the big news yet.

"I have been offered a job with the FBI in New York on the behalf of Agent Jessica Spencer."

To her surprise Alex blushed, before he muttered, "so she did talk to you." he said, looking away for a moment.

Erin looked at him surprised by his reaction "do you know her? Did you work with the FBI before?" Erin didn't know much about Alex's work with the CIA, but if the FBI and the CIA were going to collaborate on the joint terrorism task force, it might as well be beneficial to know if she would see Alex. It would help getting to know people at least.

Alex sighed, before going over to an extra chair perpendicular to the couch. He clasped his hands together before suddenly chuckling. "Before I took a job with the CIA, I bounced around the different agencies for a while. While I was at the FBI, Agent Spencer was my handler. I wasn't there long, but…" he trailed off leaving an awkward silence between them

Erin suddenly blanched "you slept together didn't you?" she squeaked, surprised by her own blunt question.

Alex suddenly laughed, giving Erin a sly smirk "why Erin, are you jealous?" he asked wiggling his eyebrows up and down.

Heat filled Erin's cheeks and her cheeks darkened to a deep maroon, as she sputtered a response. "Al—you… you…."

Alex just laughed again before shaking his head "relax Erin, I'm only teasing." His face then quickly went serious before he changed the subject. "Ok, that was a little much, but before this becomes a debate, yes, I know her very well and have worked with her. I know she talked to you because I'm the one who told her about you in the first place. So if you take the job, yes, we might be seeing more of each other, since I'm based in New York."

Erin shook her head "that's not why I'm here, Alex." Erin told him.

Alex nodded "trust me Erin, I know that. So why are you here? I know it's not a social visit"

Erin's mouth opened and closed several times as she struggled to come up with the words necessary for the conversation at hand. Her last conversation with her ex came to mind. "You once told me that you would have been there for me and Thea. Will you be there for me now?"

Alex smiled, taking Erin's hand in his "You know I will."

Erin returned his smiled before biting her lip. "your friend… have you spoken to him about Thea?"

Alex's face fell into a frown and he shook his head, recalling what happened that night, so many weeks ago. "Last I spoke to him, he told me to keep my distance. Said that I would lose Thea if I didn't give her time to heal."

Erin gave Alex a bemused stare "you DO realize I'm her mother right?"

Alex was no stranger to Erin's trouble with her mother, so he basically knew what Erin was telling him. When it came to parental figure's Erin just seemed to be predisposed to hating them.

Alex chuckled at Erin's words "Erin, Thea isn't you." he stopped, his eyes glazing over as he thought about Thea. He let go of Erin's hand, contemplating whether or not to tell her the truth. After a moment he sighed, before looking back at Erin "I've been watching her for some time. She seems to have a stable social life."

Erin wasn't sure whether to be proud or disturbed by the fact that Alex was keeping tabs on their daughter. Scoffed at the remark "so did we." She retorted, referring to their shared heroin binge. "But a personal life isn't the same as a social life."

At that remark, Alex's training kicked in. something about that line seemed suspicious. His eyes narrowed and he scowled at Erin "Erin, what aren't you telling me?"

Erin's mouth dropped open. she couldn't believe this. Alex was talking to her like she was a suspect! But then she realized what he was asking, and her trail of thought went to Thea's heart condition "Alex… I…."

Alex grabbed Erin's hand again and squeezed it gently "Erin. What's wrong with our daughter?" he asked gently.

Erin squeezed Alex's hand before she told him the truth "Althea has Ventricular Septal Defect. When I first met her, she had a blackout. I took her to the hospital and they told me about her condition." Tears began to pool in her eyes as she began to recount the events of that first day. "She was lying there, unconscious. Doctor Halstead…" she paused at Alex's confused face "Jay's younger brother." She would have laughed at Alex's face as jealousy passed through his features, but she was too focused on Thea to care. Told me about her condition. That's how I found out that she was my… our daughter."

Alex frowned, closing his eyes in thought, but to Erin's surprise, a tear leaked down his face. "Is she…. safe?" he asked, his voice croaking at the thought of Thea getting hurt.

Erin looked down at the floor. "I- I don't know."

Alex sat back in his chair and placed his head in his hands. Thoughts of his daughter swirled in his mind. She had been abandoned, neglected and lost, and on top of all this, she wasn't even healthy. He was worried enough about being a father, but now this?

He didn't know how much more heartbreak he could take.

Erin curled up on the couch, shivering. She sat there for a few moments, before glancing back at Alex. Despite herself, she could feel desire pumping through her. she knew that the last time she had slept with Alex, it was because she felt horrible about what she did to Thea. Know she knew that Alex felt just as terrible as she did. She then stood up and went over to Alex, placing a hand on his shoulder. Alex looked up to find Erin standing over him, before she suddenly sat on his lap, wrapping her arms around his neck and gently pressing a kiss to Alex's lips.

Alex wrapped his arms around Erin, deepening the kiss, his tongue licking Erin's mouth, which opened up and allowed Alex entrance. Alex's hand moved to Erin's waist, while Erin trailed her hand down Alex's chest.

Erin sighed into the kiss, regretting that she couldn't admit to herself that she missed this, even after what happened between them.

Alex noticed her hesitation and pulled away, still breathless from the act. "Erin." He began, but Erin claimed his lips again. Groaning, Alex pulled away again and grabbed Erin by the shoulders, gently shaking her. "Erin"

Erin shook her head "I know Alex. We can't. I'm not trying to seduce you again… I just wanted to make you feel better."

Alex gently caressed Erin's cheek with his free hand. Smiling he said "Erin, you being happy is always a away to make me feel better."

Erin blushed, before gently kissing Alex's cheek. She then pulled back and placed her head on his chest "hold me…" she whispered.

Sighing, Alex gathered Erin in his arms, before taking her to the bedroom. He gently pulled back the covers, allowing Erin to slide in the bed, with Alex joining her a moment later. Erin placed her head on Alex's chest, listing to his heartbeat the same way she did that first night.

As her eyes flutter shut, Erin whispered, "I'm sorry," as she began to fall into the blissful hold of sleep. As Alex followed her, he softly responded, "I know,"

Meanwhile, Erin's phone buzzed for the first of many that night, as she received a message from Jay that would change everything.

* * *

 **A quick word of warning. As I had just found out yesterday, Sophia Bush will not be returning for season 5 of the show, so this will give me a lot of creative freedom, so expect a lot of OOC moments from Erin because of Alex and Thea. I do ask that you keep an open mind and if you have any complaints feel free to voice them, but do not criticize my choices just because you don't like them. I know Linstead is popular and I try to respect my readers so I ask you respect my writing, because this is fan fiction. If you don't like it, write your own**

 **Since I have more creative freedom I think its far to tell you that I do have plans for Jay Erin and Alex. But take note that just because Alex is mine and MarkMcgee9718's OC, Erin won't end up with him, but don't expect Erin to end up with Jay either. I don't know what will happen. Put yourself in Erin's shoes. Would you really want to have a relationship while trying to figure out how your going to make up with your child?**

 **AND BEFORE ANYONE makes the "but you're making Erin go with Alex" argument, because I know someone will, REMEMBER some things.**

 **1\. Erin still has unresolved feelings for him.**

 **2\. Alex is Thea's father. He would be the appropriate choice for Erin to go to to for help deal with Thea. They made her and therefore are responsible. Jay is not involved nor should be. He CANNOT help because he is an isolated third party. He will still be around to provide moral support, but he has no right to voice his opinion on the matter because Thea is not his responsibility.**

 **3\. Jay is MARRIED. Legally, he is bound by law to uphold his vows, however drunk he may have been when he made them. Morally, he should not cheat on his wife. So until he sorts that out (which I will because the show NEVER does) Erin is off limits. I don't care that Linstead was around before the writers threw that wrench in, its just not right when you have a moral obligation to your partner.**

 **4\. Erin slept with Alex because she was emotionally unstable. I know some people didn't agree with my writing that, but if I make Jay and Erin sleep together NOW or before Jay squares away his divorce it paints him in a negative light because he is cheating on his wife. Yes he loves Erin, but I don't feel like writing him as willing to cheat based on a technicality. My reason for this is the Netflix show Frequency. In THAT show, the main character, Raimi Sullivan was about to be proposed to by her boyfriend. But she changed the timeline (watch the show) and her boyfriend ended up engaged to someone else (and never meeting him because of the changes), while Raimi was having a physical relationship with someone who was essentially (to her) a complete stranger. BUT she still ended up getting involved with her original boyfriend WHILE HE WAS STILL ENGAGED! If I took anything away from that subplot it was that Raimi ended up being a** **home wrecker** **, and despite the fact that the man WAS her boyfriend in the ORIGINAL Timeline, in THIS one, he was willing to cheat on his Fiancee with RAIMI! SOMEONE HE DIDN"T EVEN KNOW! And not for one second does she think "Hmm, I love him, but he is getting married to someone else. Oh wait, does this mean I should be worried that If I manage to fix my mistakes, that maybe he might cheat on ME?!" Because I think that if you can make someone cheat on their partner for YOU, then you would not be the ONLY one capable of doing that to the same person. Not to mention, because she was also with her new partner, SHE becomes a cheater as well! Does that sound like a recipe for a likable character to you?!**

 **4.5. So If I made Erin start two timing with Jay and Alex NOW, she will essentially become the very thing I hated about Raimi. Yes she already cheated on Jay, but that was written chronologically before they knew he was married. Now that WE the viewers, know that Jay is married, Linstead moments would essentially paint Jay as a man willing to cheat, and Erin as a home wrecker. DO YOU WANT TO HATE THEM?!**

 **SO for ALL the reasons above Linstead moments will be far and in between until Jay settles his own issues. I'm sorry, but thats just how I feel. When I can get to a point that writing Linsted moments would not be poisonous, then I will start writing some in.**

 **Till Next Time.**


	21. Chapter 21

**Can I just take a moment of your time to tell you how utterly and insanely shocked I am right now? Chicago P.D is completely and utterly uncharted territory for me. I know next to nothing about the show and my first attempt at this ended VERY BADLY. But give me a relatable prompt (THANK YOU Mark!) and 20 chapters, 75 reviews 45 favorites 87** **followers and 30000 views later, Bound by Blood is still going strong.**

 **Thank you for giving this story a chance!** **So without further ado, read on!**

* * *

Erin awoke the next morning, much to her surprise, in an empty bed. It was rather odd, because Erin wasn't used to being alone when she woke up, even though for the past few days that had been the case. But having occupied a shared bed last night, being alone now was rather disorienting, to say the least. Sitting up, she blinked away the remnants of sleep, before stretching, feeling the satisfying pop in her joints.

As she tossed the blankets aside, a warm scent hit her nostrils. Alex must be in the kitchen, contrary to most peoples thoughts, Alex did know how to cook; he often di d back when they were teenagers.

And judging from memory, he was cooking pancakes. Blueberry. Her favorite.

Smiling, Erin stood from the bed and walked into the main room, where sure enough, Alex could be scene in the adjoining kitchen. His back was turned to her, so if he noticed that she was awake, he was doing nothing to show it. Erin walked up next to him, before placing a hand on his shoulder, "Morning" she whispered, in a rather sexy sleeping voice, as it was still laced with drowsiness.

Alex barely turned from the stove to give Erin a smile, "Morning" he said before returning to the task at hand, causing Erin to laugh. She glanced down at the pancakes, which smelled delicious. So much, so, that she could feel her mouth watering. Alas, she would have to wait. She looked at him "is there anything I could do?" she asked tenderly.

Alex chuckled "could you grab the syrup out of the cabinet there? Can't have pancakes without syrup." He joked with a chuckle.

Erin laughed, before going to the specified cabinet and took the syrup out, before she went to sit down by the table, placing he syrup on the table, to wait patiently for her breakfast.

As she did so, she turned her head to watch the world outside of the window, her thoughts turning to Thea. She missed her. Erin tried to fight it, but she could no longer hold herself back. Screw that her foster parents might do, Erin was not going to pass up a chance to make up with her daughter again.

"You've got that look in your eye." Alex's voice snapped her back to reality. Looking back at him, Erin saw Alex place 2 plates full of pancakes on the table, sliding into the seat across from her. However, neither of them began to eat, instead just sitting there. After last night, there really wasn't much to talk about, save for their daughter.

Erin sighed, "you can tell?" Alex smirked for a moment, before nodding "you want to go find her don't you?" he asked, not needing to go into detail.

Erin folded her arms and leaned back in her chair ""she's our daughter." She responded as if that was enough.

Alex sighed placing his hands on the table and clasping them together. "I know." Hew looked at her. "When she was born, did you list me as the father?" he asked.

Erin shook her head "no. I didn't." she slumped her shoulders "I wish I had; we could have used that."

This was going to be harder than they thought. Erin and Alex both knew the law of course. Erin had her parental rights terminated, courtesy of Hank when Thea was put up for adoption and Erin never listed Alex as the father on Thea's birth certificate, so neither of them had any visitation rights, nor fight for her custody in court (easily at least.) but they had to try.

As the two sat there, the breakfast going cold since they were barely touching it, a sudden buzzing noise filled the room. Erin and Alex snapped their heads in the direction of the sound, and Erin suddenly gasped. Scrambling from her chair she ran to the couch, where her phone still sat from the day before. Fishing it from the pocket. It was Jay! She had been ignoring his calls for the past couple of days. She just didn't know what to do with him. Having decided to stay away from each other, their relationship was at a bit of a standstill.

Erin didn't want to drag Jay further into the problem with Thea, but she couldn't continue to ignore him either. She kept pushing him away, but he continued to stand firm. He loved her. He had such loyalty to her and all she had done was throw it back in his face. He deserved better from her. He deserved better than her, after all she had done.

Turning to Alex, who seemed to be doing his best to ignore Erin, if only so to not invade her privacy, Erin mouthed, "excuse me," before answering the call "Jay." Her voice warbled the slightest bit, dreading the conversation she was going to be having.

"Erin!" Jay cried over the other side of the line. "Thank god. When you didn't return my call last night, I got worried."

Erin's face filled up with heat. Last night she was once again sleeping beside an old lover. What a response that would make. "I'm sorry Jay, I had a lot on my mind last night after what happened to my mother."

There was a momentary silence from Jay before he responded, "Erin, I'm sorry about your mother."

That one almost made Erin laugh. Almost. Bunny had it coming long before she was arrested. Years of heartbreak and broken promises desensitized Erin to her mother and any sympathy for her.

"But… uh. Could I see you?" Jay asked. "I-" he stopped for a moment, "I want to talk to you about something." Erin stiffened at that. Not that she didn't want to see him, but… she just didn't want to explain to him where she was and what she was doing. And planned to do.

"Jay…" Erin breathed, before looking back at Alex. He was ignoring her completely. Of course, Erin didn't need his permission, but they still had a lot to talk about. But she also knew that Jay was stubborn and would likely continue to push to see her regardless, so she might as well just get this out of the way. "Sure." She told him.

"Great!" Jay said with enthusiasm, much more than she would have thought that he would have responded with. It seemed even he realize this, because a moment later, she heard him clear his throat. "Can you meet me at Mickey's bar, then, in say, an hour?" he asked.

Erin smiled, despite herself. "All right." she told him, "see you then. I love you" she said before hanging up.

Her hand dropped, before she turned around to see Alex still sitting at the table. Her hands suddenly felt clammy, and she looked at the floor "Alex…."

Alex stood up and went over to Erin, placing a hand on her shoulder, "you love him." it was not a question. He remembered her telling him as much that day.

Erin smiled, before saying "I want you to know that…."

Alex shook his head "Erin. What you do with your life is not my business. I still need to go talk to Dwight anyway. Get him to let us talk to Thea. You do what you have to." He stroked her cheek "I want you to be happy."

Erin sighed, holding Alex's hand closer to her face "do what you can," she whispered, as she kissed his hand. She then stepped back, grabbed her jacket from the couch and slipped it on, before leaving Alex's apartment.

* * *

It was good, perhaps, that Erin was wearing jeans and a blouse to the bar, rather than something fancy, because when she arrived, she realized that she hadn't even bothered to ask Jay what they would be doing there. Sure she went back to her place and get ready, but she hadn't made sure to wear something better than what she had on.

Then again, Mickeys bar wasn't exactly a fancy place to begin with, which meant one of two things. Either Jay just wanted to talk to her, which seemed likely, or something important. Probably both. Actually, now that Erin thought about it, the last time that they talked (back when her mother was arrested) Jay seemed to have something on his mind.

Erin hadn't really cared at the time, but maybe Jay wanted to get something off his chest. That didn't explain why he wanted to see her. Maybe he got over his problems with Abby.

Doubtful, it hadn't been that long, and if Jay was looking for a "I'm single" booty call, then he had another thing coming. Granted, she didn't expect that, but the point was, why Jay wanted to see her was baffling considering that they were supposed to be taking time away from each other.

But that didn't stop Erin from wanting to see him.

Erin opened the door to the bar, nostalgia and loss suddenly hitting her. She hadn't been here since before the incident that led to her dismissal from the intelligence unit. She had been actively avoiding it, seeing it as too much of a good thing at a time where everything was going wrong in her life.

Taking a deep breath, Erin glanced around the bar, not noticing Jay until he started waving at her from a booth near the window. Smiling, Erin made her way to the booth, sliding into the seat across from Jay. Giving him her best fake smile (which would hopefully be enough to fool him right now) she opened up with a joke "whats the occasion?"

Ok that was terrible and she knew it, but when the tension was awkward as hell, Erin wasn't sure what to say. she had been avoiding Jay ever since Thea showed up, not to mention everything in between and since he was married the last thing she wanted to do was become a home wrecker even if it was in name only.

Needless to say, Erin wasn't sure where their relationship now stood, but one thing was for sure, Erin did not want to lose the best thing that ever happened in her life.

Jay gave what seemed to be a nervous laugh, before he leaned forward, giving Erin a smile. "Well, I wanted to meet you here." He said with a grin, causing Erin to giggle for a moment. She would have leaned over the table to kiss him, but she could still hear the name Abby and the word marriage echo in the back of her mind. So instead, she nodded "I know. You called me didn't you?" despite her attempt at levity, Erin could shake the bite in her tone, as if she was angry, rather than happy to see Jay after all this time.

Jay blinked, surprised by Erin being so blunt. It wasn't like her to be like that, but then again he supposed after everything she had gone through and was looking at everything that she was going to go through with her family problems, that he couldn't blame her.

"Erin," Jay began, only to be interrupted as a waiter came bye with a couple of drinks, no doubt something that Jay had ordered while waiting for Erin. They clearly weren't alcoholic, since it was way to early for that, so Erin gratefully took the drink and gingerly sipped it. She then placed the drink down and stared at Jay for a moment searching his face. That feeling, the one she had felt about him the last time that they had seen each other, still remained. He seemed hesitant and nervous, so unlike the man she had come to love.

Jay shook his head, trying to rid himself of his nerves, before suddenly taking out his wallet and throwing some money on the table. He stood up and went over to Erin's side of the booth, before holding out his hand a wide grin on his face. "Walk with me." He asked

Erin smiled, taking his hand and allowing him to pull her to her feet, before they left the bar, hand in hand.

* * *

Erin found herself walking down the riverside that she had been at the night before, a place where she had spent many dates with Jay or simply walking along side the river to clear her thoughts.

The walk had mostly been silent; Erin hadn't been sure of what they could talk about and Jay seemed so out of character that even he couldn't get past the awkward tension.

So, in order to get past it, Erin blurted out the first thing, actually the only thing, that she could think of, since it was the last conversation that they had. "hows it going with you and Abby?"

That finally seemed to get a reaction out of Jay. He stopped in his tracks, stiff from shock, and he turned his head slowly, his mouth agape as Erin stopped to look at him.

After a few moments, he seemed to recover, glanced away from her, before he began the tale "not much to tell," he stated honestly "I've been looking at a divorce lawyer, but I haven't actually seen much of Abby so that we could talk about it."

"Doesn't want to give you up, does she?" Erin asked, knowing how dreadfully familiar it sounded.

To her surprise, Jay let out a bark of laughter, before he continued to walk, Erin following him. "No, I suppose not."

The two walked for some time, before Jay suddenly stopped, going over to the railing overlooking the river and grabbed the metal bar, sighing heavily. Erin watched him genuinely confused by his attitude.

"That's why I wanted to see you today Erin." Jay began, his tone dropping into one of a more subdue, and hopeful tone. He turned to her, his nervous demeanor breaking for a more confidant stance. "I know that you're going through a lot. But despite everything, I want to be there for you."

Erin felt her mouth go dry. The way he was talking. Jay…. He wasn't… was he?

"You're all I think about. Everything that has happened. You lost your mother and your on the verge of losing your daughter" unbeknownst to him, Erin's blood ran cold at that statement. Jay reached into his pocket, producing a small red box "I want to be by your side to help you through this." He then walked over to Erin, stopping with just enough distance between them, before dropping to one knee. "Erin Lindsay, will you marry me?"

Erin stuttered, her heart racing at the sight of her beloved down on one knee. He was so sure of himself, so confident, that it made her feel strong.

And with that in mind, she gave him her answer.

* * *

 **Do I need to even say anything? Well if I'm going to be honest, I just really felt that this was the best way to start with Jay's divorce with Abby. then again, I won't go into to much detail with that anyway, because this story is about Erin not Jay, but it will be touched upon in time. As always leave your thoughts.**


	22. Chapter 22

**OK, before we begin, I'm going to thank a few people, specifically Naley23alwaysforever and** **Geeralda, for being able to read this story and accept that this story at its core, is not a Linstead story, and still read it. So thank you.**

 **As for everyone else, I apologize. Like I said, I don't care about romance in Dick Wolf shows, so I want you to know that its not that I have a problem with Linstead, its just that I don't personally care about it or 99% of any other romances I have seen in the Law and Order universe. But I do include it out of respect for the source material and those who love it. I know that I seem kind of biased with my OC and his relationship with Erin, but I promise you, what I am writing** **is an attempt to make the characters more human within the scenario that I have put them in. This chapter reflects my personal views on the matter, both within the show and within the story itself.**

* * *

"No"

The word came out of Erin's mouth with terrible finality, yet with a strength foreboding anger and shock, despite the fact that Erin was shaking with anxiety as Jay's words continued to ring throughout her mind. Marriage. The man she loved was proposing marriage. It was a bright spot in the sea of darkness that she felt that she was drowning in.

There was a time where being married to Jay was all Erin had ever dreamed about. These past few months together had felt nothing short of a dream, one that Erin would gladly hope to never wake up from.

But then so much happened in so little time. Justin was killed, leaving Hank vindictive and vengeful about life and seemed to be even bitterer since learning about Thea, wanting Erin to have nothing to do with her like they agreed over a decade ago. But Erin had grown up and wasn't going to let Hank tell her what to do anymore. Erin let Thea go once; she wasn't going to let her go again.

Thea herself had shown up, forcing Erin to relive the trauma of letting her go, and find a way to be in her life this time around, if Althea was willing. That was going to be the hardest part, since Thea was still traumatized by learning of her parentage the way she did.

Then there was Alex. Of all the people Erin did not expect to be in her life, Alex was second on the list, only to Thea. Of course they would be working together for Thea's benefit, but then there was also the question of her feelings for him. Erin and Alex relationship had been turbulent to say the least, given that they both had problems with heroin, but Erin would be lying if she said that beneath all that, she had always loved him. While she loved Jay as well, certainly enough to marry him, Alex's mere presence made her question her love for both men.

Then of course, there was the fact that Jay still had to deal with Abby. As he stated earlier, he still had to deal with his marriage and relationship with Abby. Erin wanted to be with him, but she didn't want Jay to think of her as an anchor for him. She wanted him to treat her as an equal, something she didn't feel like right now. he could help her through SOME of the problems, but she certainly didn't have to marry Jay to feel secure in the situation she was stuck in right now.

Jays face fell, and his eyes widened at Erin's response as if he never expected her to say no, and therefore didn't have a backup plan in order to change Erin's mind, not that he could have.

Unable to face him, Erin turned away, wrapping her arms around her stomach as hot tears began to stream down her face. She heard Jay get off of his knee, but she refused to move. At least until she felt Jays hand land on her shoulder and heard his tender voice. "Erin." He began, but she cut him off.

"I can't marry you Jay." Erin whispered, turning her heard to look at him, but keeping her body forward "there's just too much going on."

Jay looked at her, before gently placing his hands on Erin's waist and turning her around. Erin didn't resist and instead buried her face in his chest. After a few moments, Erin pulled away, backing up before giving Jay a sad stare "Jay I love you, but ever since Jimmy came to Chicago, you have been treating me like I'm a glass object. I'm not. And what I have to do with Thea, you CAN'T help me. Its something I have to do myself."

At that, Jay's expression turned sour "but you can do it with her father?" he spat.

Erin gasped at the venom in Jays tone. Just a minute ago, he was ready to propose to her with all the love in the world. Now he was glaring at her with jealousy.

Erin bit her lip and her eyes narrowed in anger "Jay, there is more to him than you can understand. Whatever our relationship is…"

Jay cut her off "and what is your relationship Erin? Help me understand, WHY you choose to spend so much time with Thea's father." His voice was thick with anger and jealously that it made Erin back up as if Jay had physically struck her, and with that any attempt to handle the situation peacefully abandoned her "Jay." She began, her voice dripping with rage "THEA is MY DAUGHTER. MINE and ALEX'S. THAT'S why I have been sending so much time with him. We have been trying to do what's best for OUR daughter. I don't want you to get involved because I love you and I don't want to drag you down with me."

Jay shook his head "Erin, I love you. I want to help you. Please, let me in."

Erin frowned, looking at Jay directly in the eye "you want to help?" she asked "then stop thinking only about yourself." She told him, before turning and walking away, leaving a heartbroken Jay behind.

* * *

Erin made her way back to Alex's apartment, feeling quite dejected. That was not the way she wanted to end things with Jay. She just didn't have a choice. She was caught between a rock and a hard place. She could have accepted Jay's offer, it just wouldn't have felt like the right time.

What on earth possessed Jay into proposing marriage?! Marriage was supposed to be a happy moment, a time to look to the future, and hope for the best. Erin was not at that point right now. She wouldn't feel ready to face the future until she quelled the demons of her past and reconciled it with her present.

She would go back to Jay eventually, but she needed time. Especially since they had a huge fight over Erin's loyalty. Jay just couldn't understand what she went through. Even so, Thea needed to understand why she and Alex abandoned her. Other people that could be in her life, like Hank or Jay, would have to wait until after Thea was able to forgive her parents.

Erin knocked on Alex's door, waiting for him to open the door. Thankfully she didn't have to wait long, for seconds later, her old friend opened the door and not a moment later, did Erin pass him, making a b line straight for the bathroom, shutting the door behind her and going to the sink. She gripped the porcelain, her body shaking madly, Jay's proposal echoing through her mind, over and over.

"I'm so sorry, Jay" she whispered her voice hoarse.

However, before Erin could start crying, a knock on the bathroom door startled her. "Erin. What happened?"

Erin shuddered and blinked back the tears pooling in her eyes. She had done enough crying on the way over here, and her eyes were dry and bloodshot as it is. She didn't need to start crying anymore. Going to the door, Erin opened it up, revealing Alex, a concerned expression on his face. Before he could have a chance to ask, Erin shook her head giving him a "don't ask" look. She brushed past him once again, going back to his couch. Alex followed, if only to make sure that she was ok. Though it wouldn't take a genius to realize that she wasn't.

Erin sunk onto the sofa, her head falling into her hands. Alex sat across from her, watching Erin as she sat there immobile. "Erin?" Alex asked softly, hoping to get a small reaction out of his old friend.

That finally seemed to get one out of her. Erin suddenly let out a roar and she, slammed her fists down on the table. This shocked Alex, who looked at her like she was crazy.

After taking a few moments to calm down, Erin let out a deep sigh, doing her best to release the anger and sadness that built up in her system over the course of the afternoon. After a few moments, she lifted her head and opened her eyes, meeting Alex's eyes, tense silence between them.

Alex, having known Erin as long as he did, could tell that something was wrong, but knew that she wouldn't talk about it. So instead, he decided to give her some good news. Sitting back in his chair, Alex clasps his hands together, giving Erin a somber smile "I… uh… I talked to Dwight while you were gone." he told her

Despite the earlier events, Erin let a smile tug at her lips, hope swelling inside her "and?" she prompted.

Alex chuckled, nodding "Dwight managed to convince Thea to a least let us in the door. I can't guarantee that she'll forgive us once we talk to her though." he said as he stood up.

Erin looked at him, before she also stood up, giving Alex a smile. "What are we waiting for?" she asked.

* * *

Thea sat on her bed, dressed in one of the few outfits Brie had bought her after moving in with her foster family. It was a purple dress, complete with violet sandals. She felt like a princess, but lets face it, she didn't feel like one.

Her stomach was churning. Over the past few weeks, Thea had constantly been at war with herself. After that night that she discovered that her hero was also her mother, not to mention that her foster fathers friend was her biological father. When Thea realized that, she felt sick, since she came to understand that she had made jokes about her parents in bed with each other.

That wasn't the worst part. The worst part was deciding how the hell she was going to be around Erin and Alex now that she knew that they were a family. Thea had so many questions. Aside from the fact that she was the result of a teenage pregnancy, why was it that Erin decided to abandon her? As well, judging from his reaction, her father didn't seem to realize that Thea even existed. So what had happened? All of this was swirling inside Thea, all the pain the anger and uncertainty. It made her feel scared. Being so young and having dreamed of this moment for her entire life, it was safe to say that Thea was not sure how to handle it.

Dwight had told her that her parents were trying to make an effort to try and see her. He and Alex had spent quite a while talking on the phone. She heard a majority of their conversation. It both excited and scared her that her parents wanted her to be in their lives; that they wanted to be in her life. But after 15 years of disappointment, Thea didn't want to get her hopes up, only to have her heart crushed by the people she so desperately hoped would return for her.

But then there was another problem that Thea was having. After the fiasco that was the family reunion dinner, Brie had started filing adoption papers. The elder woman seemed to realize that Thea didn't have a stable life, and after seeing what had happened, must have decided that if nothing else worked, then Thea would have a home with Dwight and Brie, whilst keeping Erin and Alex at a distance. Thea wasn't sure how she would be able to be involved in parent's life, but even if they couldn't be a family the way that she had always dreamed, visitation would be good enough for her. At least, after she got to know her parents a little more.

Not to say that Thea hadn't already started, given her relationship with Erin, but of course she had to start from scratch, now that the truth of their relationship was known.

Maybe after all was said and done, Thea would be a little more comfortable, but as of the moment, spending an afternoon with her parents like a normal family would certainly be the most challenging event in her life.

As the young girl sat on her bed, there was a knock on her bedroom door, causing Thea to jump. "c-come in." she stuttered, still trying to calm her nerves.

The door opened, revealing Brie, a tender smile on her face, but Thea could see the sparkle of guilt in her eye. The guilt that Thea was being forced to go through with what was happening to her. "May I talk to you for a second, Thea?" she asked. Thea nodded, clenching her hands to keep them from shaking.

The elder woman sat beside Thea on her bed, before placing her hand on the young girls shoulder. "Are you sure you want to do this?" she asked soothingly. It made Thea shudder. Brie wasn't even her mother, but she was acting like one.

Thea forced herself to nod "I've been waiting for this moment my whole life. And I'm scared" her voice cracked at that last sentence. Her body began to shake from the anxiety. "I don't know what to do." She whispered.

Brie sighed, before grasping Thea's hand. "No one said this was going to be easy, Thea, but remember, they want this as much as you do."

Thea choked hearing that, and she swallowed hoping to calm herself down. Naturally, it didn't work at all. Of course she knew that her parents wanted to be in her life. That's what scared her "what am I supposed to do, Brie?" she whispered.

She heard the elder woman sigh, before being drawn into a hug. Thea didn't resist finding comfort in Brie's arms.

A few moments later, they heard the doorbell ring, causing Thea to stiffen and pull away from Brie. They were here. She wasn't ready for this. She didn't think she was ever going to be ready for this.

Brie, for her part, stood up and gave Thea a smile "we will be waiting down stairs" she told Thea, before she left the room, closing the door behind her.

Thea sat there for a moment longer. Weighing her options. She could wait in her room where she felt safe, until Brie called her, or until her parents came into her room alone. Or she could gather her courage and go downstairs and confront them herself. Either way the most important moment in her life was happening.

* * *

 **Does anybody still not understand why I write things the way I write them? Lets face it, if I wrote the characters to not have flaws, then this story wouldn't be interesting now would it?**

 **I know I made Jay seem harsh, but remember, ever since Jimmy showed up, Erin had been pushing him away. Add that to Erin not letting him in to help with Thea AND that she has been spending time with an ex, Jay was bound to blow up at SOME point.**

 **Which brings me to my next point. When I watched the season finale of P.D, I felt that Jay was kind of written selfishly when it came to proposing to Erin. He kept saying that HE wanted to be there for Erin, that HE wanted to help her through it. the problem is though, was marriage really the best way to HELP? Erin was going through a fairly traumatic incident that broke her personally and professionally. Marriage should come out of happiness, and since Erin wasn't happy , I think that marriage was the last thing on her mind.**

 **So if anyone has a problem with this chapter, that is the reason. Feel free to leave constructive criticism, but do so through a fair view and don't let your love of Linstead blind you. Remember, I am trying to remain impartial with the romance in this fic. I ask you to do the same.**


	23. Chapter 23

**OK, I'm not to fond of this chapter, but it'll have to do. I think I need to take quick break from this story. There chapters in a row really doesn't do much for creativity here.**

 **Please feel free to leave your thoughts on this chapter. Enjoy.**

* * *

Thea, shaking, held onto the railing for support as she walked down to the foyer. She couldn't believe this. After weeks of hiding from them, Thea couldn't believe that she was going to face her parents again. The young girl still found herself unable to wrap her mind around it. She couldn't believe it the moment she first heard it. She had run away, unable to cope with the revelation.

Now weeks later, her parents were coming back for her. They wanted to be with her. It was what Thea had always dreamed of, what she would happen, but having the revelation hit so close to home made it impossible for her to accept it. Erin Lindsay was her friend. But now she was her mother.

Then there was Alex. Naturally, Thea didn't know much about him, but the fact that he was a friend of her foster father scared her. It was like fate was pushing her towards the idea of having a family again, having met the two within mere days of one another.

Taking one step at a time, Thea made her way down the stairs, until she found herself in the foyer, staring at the open front door, where she saw the two figures that haunted her nightmares since that first night.

In the doorway, stood Erin, dressed in a dark blue dress and blue heels, not unlike Thea's own attire. Beside her stood Alex, dressed in a black collared suit and black shoes with a dark red tie.

Thea gulped, feeling ready to faint as her heart pounded in her chest. She stared at her parents, unable to speak. The tension in the room was extremely palpable, and Thea had to fight herself. Her heart told her to stay put, but her legs wanted to move on their own and run back upstairs. But she held firm, wanting to see this through until the end.

Brie, who stood at the doorway, quickly looked at Erin and Alex muttering "I'll give you some privacy." Before she left the room.

Erin, probably the one most used to the situation at hand, was the first to make a move. She entered the house and made her way to Thea, dropping to her knees and wrapping her arms around her daughter "I'm sorry, Thea." She whispered in a soft, yet broken voice.

Thea felt tears well up in her eyes as she wrapped her arms around Erin, feeling overwhelmed by the simple act of affection, and despite her irritation toward her mother, Thea jut couldn't deny the emotions that she was feeling. She laid her head on Erin's shoulder, enjoying the tender warmth the embrace provided.

After a few moments, Thea let go, allowing Erin to stand up, and she looked at her mother, before she looked at her father. He was standing behind Erin, almost stoically, but when he looked in his eyes; eyes that were identical to her own, she saw sadness and betrayal. Sadness that he had lost so much and betrayal at the fact that he had missed so much of her life, not even knowing that he existed.

Thea stepped forward, her hands clasped together in front of her, as she stared at Alex. The man looked down at her before he placed his hand on her shoulder, patting awkwardly. "Hi, there kid" he muttered.

Thea bit her lip, before looking between her parents, at a loss for words. What could she say? That she was happy to finally meet the people who brought her into this world? That this was what she had hoped for her entire life? Well, it was, but that still couldn't make her talk.

Erin was the first to break the awkward silence. "thea." She said causing the young girl to turn to her. "I know that you're still unsure about all of this," she looked at Alex, then back to Thea. "But your father and I had a very long discussion about this. We aren't asking for you to call us mom and dad if you don't want to. We just want you to accept us in your life. Let us be the parents we should have been, for whatever that means."

Alex then spoke to Thea as well "I know that this is a lot to handle Thea, but your mother and I will help you through it, if you let us." He said with a small smile

This was almost too much for Thea to bear. Her parents had come telling her that they wanted to be with her. Even though she was angry at them abandoning her, even though she could understand why she was given up for adoption, he just couldn't turn Erin and Alex down, not after they were oh so willing to want her. so she did what any immature 15 year old orphan did after finding out that she was wanted.

She began to cry, dropping to her knees and sobbing heavily, overwhelmed by her emotions. She didn't care that her parents were watching, she was to overwhelmed by her emotions to care.

She was so caught up in her crying that she didn't even hear her parents make her way toward her. From behind, Erin dropped to her knees and wrapped her arms around Thea and held her close to her chest, placing her head on Thea's left shoulder. Alex on the other hand, went to Thea's right side and enveloped the two women in his arms, holding them tightly, like a dragon protecting its greatest treasure.

The trio sat there, holding each other tightly, like the family that they should have always been. Regardless of what had happened in their past, Erin finally felt like her family was complete.

* * *

Meanwhile, back at the station, Jay sat in the break room, staring dejectedly at the box in his hand. The ring still sat in there, cold and unclaimed. Erin's words still echoed in his head. It was true that he had been a little tough on her these past few months, even though he was just trying to look out for her. But she did have a point. Just like he was dealing with Abby, and he left Erin to deal with that, he hadn't been given Erin the space she needed to deal with Thea.

Would he be lying if he said he wasn't jealous of the fact that Erin was spending time with another man? Of course. Was he livid about the fact that Erin cheated? Naturally. But he understood that she was going through so many troubles; he couldn't blame her for that. Erin wasn't one to take things for granted, so why should he?

But he felt he was losing her. He hadn't even tried to see things her way. he was trying to force his way in to e by her side. And he didn't even need to do that. Jay and Erin had been together for so long, and Jay wasn't showing her any bit of trust that a relationship of their caliber would bring.

Jay sighed, pocketing the ring, before a knock on the door startled him. Looking up, he found Hank looking at him a somber expression on his face.

Jay couldn't believe it. Hank had been against him and Erin dating at he beginning, but he eventually came around to the idea. At first Jay didn't think much of it. but now that he knew Erin was a mother, he had to imagine that part of the problem was the fact that Erin had made poor decisions before with her ex, and Hank didn't want Erin to repeat them with him.

The younger man looked at him, before asking, "how long have you known?" despite his best attempt to be polite, the hatred and bitterness seeped through is tone. Hank had to know, he was Erin's adoptive father. He had to know about Thea and her father.

Hank stood there for a moment, glancing at Jay, before he entered the room and closed the door locking it for good measure. He then folded his arms across his chest, a far away look in his eye. "Why do you want to know?" he asked going over to the younger man.

Jay stood up, feeling the ring box slip further into his pocket. Deciding for once to have a bit of faith, Jay let go of his pride, and looked at Hank with a confident expression "I asked Erin to marry me."

If Hank was surprised by Jays words he didn't show it. Instead he clicked his tongue and asked, "Do you think that's wise Jay? The entire squad knows about her daughter." Knowing Erin like he did, Hank knew that Erin was going to be stubborn about that situation. She ignored every single warning Hank had given her, and she went off and connected with Thea.

Jay swallowed "I know that sir, I just want to be there for her. But she is with…." He trailed off, as he didn't want to think about Erin's lover, nor did he even know his name. "Thea's father." Saying that still made him flare with Jealousy.

Hank nodded "Listen Jay. What happened all those years ago, Erin is trying to deal with it in her own way. It's my fault really. When Thea was born I forced her to give up the one thing in the world that was more important to Erin than her own life.

Jay tilted his head in confusion "it was the right thing to do sir; she was so young."

"That was true at the time, but now that Erin is older, she wants to take responsibility for her mistakes. Since Alex." Jay looked at him in confusion "Thea's father, was involved, she will only let him in. anybody else…. She doesn't want them to influence her like I did. " Hank said " Erin may let you in, but not until he is ready." Hank told him.

Jay placed his hands in his pockets. "Is there anything we can do to help sir?" he asked

Hank let out a laugh "stay out of her way."

* * *

Brie returned to the living room to find Thea still wrapped in her parents arms. Despite her jealousy at the situation, that Thea was being loved by Erin and Alex with the kind of affection which she knew that she would never be able to match, she couldn't help but adore the sight and the fact that Thea's wish for a family, had come true.

However, they couldn't stay in her foyer all day if they were going to pend time together, so, resisting the urge to leave the trio alone, Brie gently cleared her throat.

The newly reunited family looked toward the source of the sound and saw Brie staring at them. Realizing that they weren't alone, Thea let go of her parents and looked at her foster mother "Brie I…." she began, but she wasn't sure what to say.

Brie smiled and waved her hand "it is alright dear." She said with a smile on her face, but Erin could see her eyes budding with tears. Whether or not they were happy tears or sad tears though, Erin wasn't sure and she didn't want to ask.

Brie then looked at Erin, smiling. "Why don't you all go out for dinner tonight?" she suggested. I'm sure that there are a lot of questions to be asked and answered." She said with a small smile.

Erin, much to her embarrassment, blushed, mortified at the fact she hadn't thought of that sooner. Alex on the other hand, took the news with much more tack, standing up, before taking Erin's hand and pulling her up from her position on the floor "thanks for the suggestion Brie!" he told her, before chuckling and quite literally began to drag Erin towards the front door. Thea followed, wanting to spend every bit of time that she could with her parents.

She wasn't sure whether or not she was ready to forgive them, but being with them was definitely the first step in the right direction.

* * *

Once outside, Erin let out a breath that he hadn't realized that she was holding. Alex of course, noticed and turned to her, placing his hands on Erin's shoulders. "You ok?" he asked gently, giving Erin a smile.

Erin bit her lip, before glancing at Thea, who was walking towards them "its… just a lot to take in…" she whispered, looking at Thea with tears budding in her eyes.

Alex chuckled. "I know…" he replied. He looked at Thea as well, giving his daughter a smile " but we'll do this together."

* * *

 **Happy little ending for right now. To be honest though, i'm kind of jogging thoughts on this story right now. I know that** **have an ending planned for this sto** **ry, but how I g** **et there is another story entirely. Feel free to leave idea's, maybe it will help while I'm making a break.**


	24. Chapter 24

**OK, I'm not to fond of this chapter, but it'll have to do. Time has gotten away from me, So I don't know when the next chapter will be up, because i'm so busy. I have a rough schedule now.**

 **Please feel free to leave your thoughts on this chapter. Enjoy.**

* * *

Some time later, or it could have been days later as far as she was concerned, Erin found herself at a small downtown eatery with Alex and Thea, all of them nibbling on different meals. It hadn't taken much time for the three of them to dinner, but despite the short ride and the wait time to get to their meals, not much had been said between the newly formed family.

It wasn't so much that it was an awkward silence or that Thea was refusing to talk; it was quite the opposite. Erin and Alex had learned so much about Thea since they learned about her arrival, in Erin's case or existence, in Alex's case. Thea was asking most of the questions, but they were few and far in between. It didn't take a genius to see that she was nervous.

In a way it was rather endearing. Erin knew that Thea had been waiting her whole life to meet her parents and now that she had, she knew not what to say. But she didn't mind. Like Alex said, they were going to take it slow and let Thea open up to them in her own way, and what better way to do that than make her feel comfortable until she was ready.

Thea was nibbling on her salad. Taking the smallest of bites on the green lettuce, acting more like a squirrel with a nut than an actually human being. Erin could tell that she was nervous and likely wasn't very hungry because of it. Erin couldn't blame her because none of them were really eating. Alex had gotten soup and Erin had gotten a salad herself and everyone's plates were still full despite having been at the diner for about an hour. Needless to say, the dinner wasn't going well because of the tension between the three of them.

Taking a quick sip of her water, Erin decided to break the long silence. "I know that thi is a lot to take in Thea, but you don't have to rush." She told the young girl with a tender smile "Alex and I just want you to be comfortable."

Thea, upon hearing that dropped her fork in her dish, leaning back in her chair and buried her face in her hands. Taking a few moments, the young girl breathed heavily before letting her hands fall in her lap "I know…." She whispered, her voice cracking "I just…. I've been waiting for this moment my whole life."

"Thea" Ales said, causing the young girl to glance in his direction. "Remember, we all feel the same way, so don't get to worried. I honestly don't know what I'm doing either." to the girls surprise, he let out a small chuckle. "Its like a reality TV show"

Erin laughed at that. It was a really bad joke, but it did happen to perfectly fit the situation. At least someone was taking the situation with a little more heart than she was. And that was saying something, considering Alex seemed a lot more serious than she was in general.

Thea it seemed shared her father's sense of humor because she actually let out a full-blown laugh from that, the tension in her posture easing away, even for the slightest moment. All in all it was a better start to their growth as a family than the whole night had been thus far.

Erin smiled, tears beginning to pool in her eyes as she heard her daughter laugh with Alex. This was the perfect moment, and nothing could ruin it. Never in all of her life, did Erin feel so happy. At least, not since she still lived with Hank. Growing up in that house wasn't exactly a picnic, but it was leagues above living with Bunny. As a matter of fact Erin had all but completely lost any sense of family ties with her mother, given how their last encounter ended for the elder woman. Hopefully it would be the last encounter, she would ever have to have with the woman she used to call her mother.

Could you tell Erin was happy? Just a few days ago her life was falling into shambles and now she was enjoying herself with the people she loved most. Well some of them anyway. She would have to smooth things over with Jay and Hank, but that would come with time. For now, Erin was content being with Alex and Thea.

The laughter between father and daughter eventually subsided, before Thea turned to Erin, a wide smile not unlike Erin's own (he was grinning giddily at the fact she was having quite a fun time with her daughter). "So what happen now," she asked "Last time we got ice cream, it didn't exactly go so well."

Erin's smile slipped, remembering that moment clearly; it wasn't something that the young woman wanted to remember. The only good thing to come out of it was seeing Alex again and even then, she was beaten unconscious before she could even realize that. However she shook the thought out of her head, knowing all that Thea was asking was that she wanted to get desert with her parents, likely to actually have the desert without something going wrong, like it did last time. She chuckled. "Are you sure you want desert Thea? I'd hate for you to get chubby!" she joked, a teasing glint in her eyes.

Thea's mouth dropped open, a small blush lacing her cheeks, "you did not!" she choked out, though she was actually playing along with her mother. Alex wisely kept him mouth shut not wanting to ruin the moment nor accidently say something offensive to the girls. Either that or he was just amused by the scene playing before him.

The two laughed again, before a waitress came over, asking them if they wanted anything else with their meal. The family looked at one another, a single though occurring between the three of them "actually…" they said slowly, smiles gracing their features.

* * *

Later that night, the newfound family was walking by the water where Erin had found herself several days before, mulling over the fact that her life was in shambles; her mother was going to jail, her relationship with everybody n her life was up in the air and she was considering moving to New york to join the FBI.

Now here she was again this time having the time of her life with her daughter and ex beside her. The three of them were drinking milkshakes, courtesy of the restaurant that they had been eating at, just having a good time like most family's would after a long day.

In a way though, it made her feel sad. She knew deep down, Erin had always wanted this. To have her family back together; heck she wanted to be a part of one ever since she was younger. This was of course not counting Bunny, who could barely be qualified as a mother, with her only fulfilled duty under that job description being that she physically gave birth to Erin. She had obviously done a poor job at raising her as well, given that Erin turned to drugs and was a delinquent. The only good thing to come out of that was meeting Hank, who treated her like a daughter after he adopted her, and of course meeting Alex, which led to the birth of Thea.

Still she couldn't help but wonder if he could have had this with Jay as well. She had been with him for so long it was hard to imagine herself being with another man, but their relationship was never going to be what it once was, especially since Erin cheated on him. Not to mention, given that he WAS married and Erin pushed him away, she was not sure how she was going to repair their relationship despite the fact that Jay had forgiven her. She didn't even deserve his forgiveness and yet, he still loved her. If that wasn't true love, Then Erin dint know what could ever pass for it.

Did she feel bad that she hurt him? Of course she did. But Erin would be lying to herself if she said she regretted the moment with Alex. The two had yet to talk about where their relationship stood, but Erin knew one thing. She wasn't going to let him leave her again.

Then of course there was Thea, who was taking everything rather well. If there was one thing Erin was thankful for, it was the fact that the young girl wasn't holding on to her grudge about what happened that night. Granted, she still hadn't asked Erin about why she was abandoned, and Erin honestly wasn't sure how she was even supposed to answer that question. Regardless, Erin would answer as honestly as she could, when the time came.

Taking a sip of her milkshake she glanced at Alex, whose gaze was ahead of him. There was a small smile on his lips, a sign that he was just as happy as she was.

Erin's mind briefly flashed back to the day she told Jay that her life felt like a fairy tale dream and that she wanted to keep living in it, despite knowing that she was, in time, going to be setting herself up for failure. Sure, it had, but in the end, everything had worked out for the best. With the exception of her relationships with Hank and Jay . She had pushed away the people she loved because of the events and actions that had occurred over the past few months. Hank was disappointed in her and she still needed to patch things up with Jay, but as of here and now, everything was just perfect.

Erin smiled. She may have to fix a few things with her life, both professionally and personally, but if there was one thing that he could think right now, it was the fact that her life, for once, finally felt like a dream come true.

* * *

After a time, the trio finished their milkshakes and soon found themselves back at Alex's apartment, all curled up on the couch having a bit of a sleepover. Alex had called Dwight that evening and asked if Thea could spend the night with them, just to spend more time together as a family. They stopped at a store to grab some PJ's for Thea (a short of mini mother daughter bonding trip) before returning to Alex's apartment to enjoy the remainder of the night. The three of them resolved to just watch a random movie on television, with Thea in between her parents, leaning on her fathers shoulder, while Erin held her in her arms.

Then she looked at Thea, who was looking at the ground, Rather than watching the television, silent tears streaming down her face. Placing her hand on the young girls shoulder, Erin watched as Thea looked up at her, a wondering look in her eye. "is everything alright sweetheart?" she asked. A moment later Erin flinched, realizing what she had done. It felt natural, but she still couldn't believe that she had called her daughter 'sweetheart'. And, judging by the look of shock on her face, it didn't seem that Thea could believe it either.

However, Thea seemed to take it in stride or at the very least ignore it for a moment, because instead of responding to the new moniker, the young girl instead started shaking her head in response to Erin's question " what… what are we going to be…. After this?" she asked, her voice barely above a whisper, shaking with fearful anticipation at the answer to be given.

Erin just squeezed her daughter's shoulder, giving the young girl a reassuring smile. "Thea," she started, before giving Alex a quick pleading look, wanting him to help back her up on the matter given it WAS what they were talking about themselves. They still hadn't found out what they could do, considering that legally, they couldn't just adopt Thea. Both of their parental rights had been terminated, and just as Erin and Alex had discussed before, they would have to go to court to fight for Thea's custody.

Regardless, Erin could give her an answer. " No matter what happens, so long as you are willing, your father and I will not abandon you again. You have my word."

Hearing that broke Thea completely. She burst out into more joyful tears and threw her arms around her mother crying like baby. Taken by surprise, Erin almost toppled off the couch from Thea's actions, but managed to stay upright, before returning her daughters hug. The two leaned onto each other for support, both of them crying out of sheer happiness. It was just too perfect.

At least until a pillow suddenly hit tem both in the face, causing them to gasp and look at the culprit, who was looking rather unashamed of himself with a rather large grin on his face. "Oh, I'm sorry, did I ruin the moment?" he teased, a glint in his eye.

Erin just stared at Alex, baffled by his actions, but then she realized that he was trying to piss her off on purpose ad her shocked expression turned absolutely positively livid complete with a death defying grin. She picked up the discarded pillow from the floor and began clapping the pillow between her hands in a rather menacing way "oh no…" she said sweetly, her tone betraying the smile on her face, "I think that you did just the right thing…"

Thea, picking up on what was about to happen, jumped off the couch and ran to get another pillow, not wanting to be in between the to adults before they started wailing on one another.

Alex just returned Erin's grin, getting off the couch and grabbing another pillow to defnd himself "you do realize, Erin," he started "that you have yet to beat me in a pillow fight" he teased.

"Oh I know…" Erin replied, staring him down "but this time… I'm not alone." She said with a grin as Thea suddenly charged at Alex, pillow raised high. Erin followed suit, roaring a battle cry as she ran towards Alex, ready to unless hells fury.

Needless to say, it was quite a fun night for the family. One that they would never forget.

* * *

 **Happy little ending for right now. Once again. The end was tough to write. Like I said I was having trouble writing this chapter because I wasn't sure what to write for it. Hopefully next chapter will be better.**


	25. Chapter 25

**This is loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong overdue. oi. Working takes up way to much of my time and if it isn't that I am distracted by other things.**

 **Not to mention honestly, writers block has gotten to me in general with this story. I've been shuffling around ideas for this story for a while now but i'm not sure how to proceed with it. I have one idea that I MIGHT be able to roll with, but it not going well in terms of planning. I was originally going to go in a different direction but thinking about it it wasn't going to work, hence why this story has been on a rough hiatus.**

 **That being said its likely to be on a hiatus anyway because of one of my other stories reaching its climax so i would like to finish that first**

* * *

The next morning, Thea was the first to wake up, rather early for a Saturday, not that she was complaining because it was indeed a Saturday so how could she complain? Though she was mildly confused for when she opened her eyes it was not to the off white walls of her bedroom sealing. It was indeed white but it was a purer white.

Mildly confused, Thea sat up in her bed and took a look around the room. Instead of it being her room, filled with all the decorations and trinkets that she had, whether it be from the few belongings she had gathered over the years, or some objects that she and Brie had gotten during the occasional shopping trips they took when she first arrived, she was in a room that only looked vaguely familiar. Mainly because it was the room that she found herself being tucked into by her mother the night before.

Thea blushed remembering the previous night. After a pillow fight with her parents she began feeling tired from the long day she spent with them, and the last thing she remembered happening was her father carrying her to his bedroom while she dozed off in his arms, and placed her in his bed. The next thing she remembered was her mother tucking her in and placing a kiss on her forehead. After that she must have went off to dreamland.

Despite herself, Thea was smiling, because in all of her life she never felt more at home more than she did now. Which wasn't saying much because she never HAD a home, but the fact she felt WANTED was enough to make her feel like she was on top of the world and nothing could ever bring her down.

Then her stomach rumbled and she suddenly realized how hungry she was. Ok maybe that was the one thing that could bring her down. laughing to herself, Thea threw off her covers and walked out of the room.

The living room was left exactly as she remembered it, with the pillows scattered all over the floor and overall looked like someone had fun. The only thing that looked different was a blanket the was over the couch, where at least one of her parents must have slept. Ignoring that, she continued to walk through the apartment until she made her way to the kitchen where she was forever scarred by the sight no child ever wanted to see when it came to their parents. It would haunt her for the rest of her days and she would require therapy for years

Erin and Alex were laughing, both of them covered in flour, likely from the bag sitting on the counter. It seemed that they had been cooking all morning and someone decided to have a flour fight. It was a wonder that Thea hadn't been woken up by the said fight. A nice tall stack of pancakes were sitting on the table, which did nothing to help curb Thea's hunger. She was just to in shock to see her parents so carefree this early in the morning. It honestly melted her heart to see that Alex and Erin were happy. That she was making them happy.

Despite herself, she felt hope rise within her heart. Hope that she could continue to live days like this with her family.

Knocking on the wall, Thea let out a small tired "morning".

Erin and Alex stopped laughing, surprised by the sudden voice, and looked towards the door, surprised to see Thea in her pajamas, with a tired look on her face but still just as happy and vibrant as the night before. Erin couldn't help but gush at how adorable Thea looked in the orning, not unlike how she used to when she was that age. It almost made her feel like she had been raising Thea her whole life at this moment. "Good morning Thea!" she replied, placing the towel she had used to clean up her hands on the counter before going to Thea and enveloping her in a small hug, conscious of the flour all over her own Pj's however it disnt seem that thea cared for she reciprocated the hug instantly, almost crying. It had only been a few days since she learned the truth about her parentage, and even though she had been upset at the fact Erin had lied to her, the fact Thea felt wanted still left her feeling breathless with wonder

Thea then released her mother before looking over and sprinting to her father, hugging him in the same manner. Alex chuckled, before returning the hug, then lightly ruffled Thea's already messy bed head "morning sunshine" he teased, before gently planting a kiss on Thea's head. He young girl blushed, before backing away from Alex then looked at the table, noticing that there was already a stack of pancakes with three plates on the table. Remembering her stomach growling a few minutes ago and proceeded to bolt to the table and sat down, and was about to dig in before a cough stopped her. Blushing slightly, she turned to see her parents gazing at her with knowing looks. "that hungry, huh Thea?" Alex asked, as he and Erin made there way to the table,

Erin couldn't help but laugh as she sat down next to Thea while Alex sat on the other side of Thea. "I seem to recall a certain someone acting that way when he was younger" she giggled as she reached for the spatula on the table. "Ale gave her a mock glare placing his hand on his heart before sighing dramatically "why Erin, you wound me so" he muttered before giving her a sly gin "then again I recal that you couldn't get enough of my cooking, like the other day." he chuckled "you ate half your pancake in less than a minute. So don't presume your daughters appetite only comes from me."

Erin laughed before nodding in agreement. She gently lifted a couple of pancakes using the spatula while grabbing Thea's plate and slipping them on the plate " first serving Thea?" she asked, as she placed the delicious looking breakfast in front of the young girl.

Thea had to purse her lips shut to prevent her mouth from watering, as she stared at the pancake on her plate just ready to be devoured.. As she did though, a thought raced through her mind, one that had been on her mind since he found out about her true parentage and her smile slipped slightly.

This did not go unnoticed by Erin, who immediately noticed the change in thea's mood and she placed a hand on the young girls shoulder "honey, what's wrong?" she asked tenderly, hoping not to push the young girl too hard.

Thea bit her lips feeling a bit nervous, but regardless this was something she had to do. Even if she wasn't a mistake, she still needed to know what had happened and why Erin had given her up from her point of view "Erin" her voice came out small and weak, likely from the nervousness settling in her stomach "Why did you give me up?" she asked between small gasps as a sob started to work its way up her throat

The mood in the room immediately darkened as any sense of joy in the breakfast was immediately swept away. Erin and Alex briefly glanced at one another, surprised by the question though both of them knew that they really shouldn't have been. Every child who was given up for adoption wanted to find their birth parents. It was just a surprise that Thea had asked about it so soon, given that last night they were all having fun, albeit with the slight tension they had expected from the situation they had put themselves in.

Erin bit her lip not sure how to start. Well she knew how to start she just wasn't sure how she was going to be able to tell Thea about it without scaring her any more than she already had. Taking a deep breath. Erin began telling the tale from the beginning.

"Your Father and I"… she trailed off, licking her suddenly dry lips "we met when we were about your age, in our freshman year of high school. Neither one of us….." she trailed off again. She dint want to lie to Thea, but she couldn't help but wonder if this was a burden she should have regardless of her inherent uriousity

Seeing the strain the tale was putting on Erin, Alex intervened "what your mother means Thea, is that we weren't the best of teenagers I more ways then one." He clenched his teeth "I had no excuse. I was just a dumb kid looking for a high to chase. It wasn't until I joined the military that I found peace within my self. As for your mother." He topped looking at Erin. This was something that she should talk about.

Erin gave a long sigh before continuing " I wish I could say that I had a mother Thea, but I dint. Your Grandmother was a very complicated Woman. She wasn't what you would call a fit parent and because of that I suffered too. When I became pregnant with you, I wasn't living with her at the time but what I did know was that if she knew about you…. I couldn't forgive myself if I let her take you away from me." She winced, realizing how that must have sounded to Thea.

Thea's head snapped up to look at her mother, disbelief flashing through her eyes "then why didn't you give me to my father?" she asked feeling hurt at her mother words.

"I didn't know" Alex said quickly "your mother and I lost touch not long too long after I left to go in the army. She never got the chance to tell me the truth." Despite his soft tone there was some anger in it, not that Erin could blame him. She had so many chances, but she ley her anger cloud her judgment because she felt he was abandoning her just like that.

Erin nodded "I was your age when you were born " she continued "I wanted to keep you so much, but I couldn't risk having you grow up in a life where you weren't going to be happy. So I have you up to give you the best chance you could have." Erin felt her heart clench at her own words, the repressed thoughts and feels tearing at her subconscious as she spoke. "Thea if I could go back and do it all over again, I would have, but I did what I did because all I could think about was giving you your best chance to have a happy life."

Thea sat there listening to her parents every word. She could feel that they were telling the truth. That they did indeed loved her and didn't want to suffer with them, should they have not been prepared for her, which to be honest, they weren't. But it still hurt, considering Thea had not had the happy life Erin had envisioned for her, for Alex he at the very least didn't know that she existed, and she couldn't really blame Erin for the circumstances of her adoption, but the fact that she was left behind and forgotten about hurt

Suddenly not feeling hungry, Thea pushed her chair back and stood p, before quietly walking out of the room to gather her things and return home

Erin and Alex glanced at each other a bit at a loss for words. What else could be said right now? they knew that Thea wasn't going to like their explanation, but it wasn't like they really could hide it from her forever. It wouldn't have been fair to do that nor would it have been fair to lie to her about the events of her adoption either. Even so Thea would have been able to figure out any lie pretty easily; She must have come to the conclusion that she was the product of a teenage pregnancy by the fact Erin was not that much older than her to begin with. Hell, one could argue that they almost looked like sisters.

Erin bit her lip standing up. She gripped her hair and gently tugged , feeling slightly overwhelmed by the talk "oh Alex what are we going to do?" she whimpered. Erin groaned, turning away from Alex so that he could see her tears. she loved her daughter, but shouldn't help but feel that all she was doing was hurting her.

"Hey," Alex whispered gently, getting up and wrapping his arms around Erin and drawing her into a hug. Erin shook gently in his hold; she was trying to keep from breaking down completely.

"Erin," Alex began gently "Thea is a strong girl. She knows that what you did was for her benefit. You said it yourself; you wanted to give her the best chance you could. Even if you had told me, she would have struggled to live a happy childhood. Bunny certainly wouldn't have helped as you and I both know. She can't blame you for that."

Erin nodded glumly "I know" she told him gently grabbing his hand rubbing circles with her thumb "but she did struggle. She was bounced from foster home to foster home and she is ill. I don't know what we should do to help her. I want to be a part of her life; for us to be a part of her life. But I don't want to hurt her anymore than I already have."

Alex sighed. Erin was being her usual self again. just a few days ago she was willing to go to court to gain custody of Thea and pull her out of the foster care system for good. Now she was worried that if she did she would only put more stress on Thea.

For a woman who didn't have the best example, she was certainly being a good mother.

Alex smiled gently tightening his hold on Erin "I know. But the first step in this journey Erin, is to be there for her now. one day, she will be able to look back on this, and know despite the hard ships we all went through, it made her who she is. It also means she will be able to look back and realize that despite the fact you let her go, fate brought her back t us. We may not be the perfect family she needs. But we are what she deserves." He said tenderly.

Erin's breath hitched. Damn him. Damn him and his ability to be able to say the right thing at the right time to make her feel better "oh Alex." she whispered.

However before she could continue, her phone suddenly began to buzz violently from where she left it in the living room. Disengaging herself from Alex's touch, she left the room and grabbed her phone. Looking at the caller ID he saw that it was Voight. She quickly answered, Pressing the accept call button. "Hank?" she asked she wasn't working at the squad anymore so why would Voight be calling her now?

"Erin" To her surprise, Voight sounded broken, like he was about to give her news that she really didn't want to hear. "We need you to come in. Bring Alex and Thea with you."

* * *

 **Sorry! Like I said there will be a bit of a** **hiatus because I am almost finished with another story. once I finish that I will return to this story. But you are more than welcome to throw in possible story ideas the I might be able to meld in with what i have in mind. It would be a great help!**


	26. Note

**Hi guys. Its been a while. Look, I know that I said that I will come back to this story after finishing my Frozen story, Which I will say will happen, but, I wont be writing a full story. Instead, the chapters I have planned will end the story in a rather hopeful direction rather than continue down a dreary path that I initially planned. Its largely due to writers block, which is a shame because I do like the story. I just don't have time anymore to commit to an idea**

 **This _MIGHT_ change in ****time, but for now I think its time to end this story without leaving cliffhanger at the end that leaves everyone completely annoyed this story being abandoned.**

 **The chapters will be released soon, so watch for it.**


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